The Scum of the Earth
by ThatInternetGuy
Summary: What if, a collection of the Earth's/Remnant's scumbags were to join forces? What if one of them was a child soldier? What if one of them eats people? What if one of them is messing with powers he can't comprehend? What if one of them is just a grade A douchebag? Find out, by clicking the title!
1. Chapter 1

The Scum of the Earth

Disclaimer: (sigh) I, ThatInternetGuy, own nothing other than any OCs I create or give to anyone else. RWBY is not one of them, and belongs to Rooster Teeth, and (to a lesser extent) Monty Oum.

* * *

Chapter 1: The Scum of the Earth (Remnant, or whatever!)

The Mistake...

Song: Natural Born Killer-Avenged Sevenfold

"Ok boys! We've been deployed to neutralise and capture a rogue Faunus in the nearby caverns."

The gravelly voice of Lt. Freeland boomed through the Bullhead, enrapturing his troops, with a commanding authority reserved for only the most veteran career soldiers.

"The target's name is Vladimir Rosenkov; a Vampire Bat Faunus who's been terrorising the local villages."

The Bullhead tumbled like a piece of clothing in a washing machine, jostling the men residing within it.

"His most recent crimes are: the theft of a dozen Cows over the course of four days, the brutal murders of Emilia Lilly, Jacob Jones, Michael Winchester (foreshadowing!) and Levae Davidson."

Another tremor, this time causing the warship to drop a little.

"I do not need to inform you that this list goes on for another three pages of murders-"

Yet again, this ship dropped, this time only just saving itself from a crash.

"We will catch this scum, and he will learn what happens when you screw with the Vale Marine Corps!"

{One snap for the dying

One click to end the day

Another story with a mangled scene

It couldn't happen any other way}

The resulting cheers were cut short when a horrifying clawed hand burst through the window, and dragged Private Ryan through the side of the ship, replacing them with cries of fear and rage. Another major cause for concern was the fact that the engines had cut off.

{You wanna talk about it?

I'm begging you to walk in my shoes any time

Watch the clock 'til you unwind

You wanna cry about it?

It's making me consider that I lost my mind

The way I see you must be blind }

The Lieutenant noticed this, and rushed to the cockpit. When he opened the blast door to the cockpit, he was almost sucked out the Bullhead, due to the fact that there was no glass window: it had been smashed. He noticed several things: there were several large blood splatters covering the seat, meaning it was Vlad who attacked them, the ship was about to crash into the caverns, and the air conditioning had shut down-wait, what?

{So this is the world you left behind

This is the guilt that consumes you}

The Bullhead's left wing slammed into the wall of the cavern, and it snapped off, causing it to horizontally barrel roll deeper into the murky home of their target.

{So die alone

This is the one thing that I won't do

So say your prayers

'Cause I ain't leaving here without you}

* * *

Freeland opened his eyes to pitch darkness. He reached down to his thigh and retrieved his sidearm, which had a flashlight strapped to it.

"Marines! Sound off!"

"Private Franklin Delano Donut sounding off!"

"Private First Class Dick Simmons sounding off!"

"Minor Junior Private Negative First Class Dexter Grif... Still breathing... I think..."

{Can't bribe me with money

Can't shower me with shame

Another killer from a broken home

Until you covered me with manic fame}

{You wanna know about it?

Well I'ma be fucking with you every time

Story broke and you're behind

And when you ask about it,

You can rest assured I'll give you my best side

Seem we all have friends to find}

Only three?!

"Anyone else?"

No response. Vlad had just killed our pilot, Four Seven Niner, Private First Class Lavernius Tucker, Private Leonard L. Church, Private Michael J. Caboose, Staff Sergeant Sarge, and Lopez the Heavy-First Robot Mechanic.

{So this is the hate I've been born to

Full are the tales of the untrue}

"Alright boys, up and at em!"

The remaining marines hobbled over to their leader, clutching some kind of injury.

"Now, there's not many of us left, but we've got a job to do-am I right Simmons?"

He turned to where he was standing moments ago, finding no one.

"Simmons?"

{So die alone

This is the one thing that I won't do

So say your prayers

'Cause I ain't leaving here without you}

"Aaa agh! He's got claws-and teeth! Aaa agh! The pain! It's too much! Ugh, blegh..."

Ubuntu gh

And so, Dick Simmons passed from this world, only to be remembered as a kiss ass by his colleagues.

"Oh my God! He's got me! Blegh!"

And so, Dexter Grif passed from this world, only to be remembered as the laziest dirtbag in any military force ever. Of all time.

"Oh, ooh, agh! This one likes to do it rough, sir! Blegh!"

And so, Franklin Delano Donut passed from this world, only to be remembered for his accidental gay innuendo comments.

"Alright Rosenkov, just you and me now! You gonna come out and fight me like a man?"

His challenge was accepted, as the racist lieutenant saw what he could only describe as a monstrosity.

Vladimir Rosenkov, a Vampire Bat Faunus known to prey on the unsuspecting villagers who went out alone at night, was right before him. His eyes were nonexistent, scrunched up eyelids replacing them. His nose was curved, and enlarged, with the nostrils resembling tear drops. His mouth was hidden behind a pair of lips covered in his main sustenance: blood. A pair of gleaming fangs were the only things that were visible from behind the evil smirk adorning his twisted features, which were at least 4" long! His ears stood on end, twitching frantically, clearly being his only method of "sight." Each one was roughly the same size-if not bigger-than his head. He wore a ragged black shirt with buttons and a collar, a sign he was attempting to prevent himself from going completely feral. His pants were equally torn and ragged, he also didn't wear shoes, though it was evident this was not by personal choice. This was due to the fact he had three large toes, two on the front, one on the heel. He was a Bat, meaning he slept upside down. His arms were thin, but muscular, and his fingers were long and bony, with 5" claws on their ends.

Then there were his wings... These had at least a 6 metre wingspan, and had their own clawed hands, only these had three fingers instead of their counterparts' five.

"You Humans really do have death wishes... Go on, what am I in for?"

Freeland wiped blood from his cheek, before reading out the list of casualties he had caused.

{And I'm waiting

Waiting for the days to slowly pass me by

(And all the promises I'll find)

No hesitating, you pull the trigger now your story's left behind

I know you want to see me fry,

Like my soul, you won't survive}

"... And Maria Freeland: my daughter."

The smirk receded, replaced by a look of horror completely unbefitting of this creature.

"So many... I-I never meant for there to be so many dead! I just needed food! I just needed food to tide me over until I found a replacement. I-I'm so, so sorry... If this is any consolation: I've finally found my secret, my cure. I no longer need the villagers for food. Those Cows I took are my answer-I don't understand how I had never thought of it before. Instead of ridding myself of my blood addiction, I have replaced it with something I can farm. I understand if you still cannot forgive me for my crimes, but everything I've done was for them. I left the village to spare them the eyesore, I searched for a cure to cease the killings."

"How... Old are you?"

Freeland asked, wondering how long he'd been alone.

{So die alone

This is the one thing that I won't do

So say your prayers

'Cause I ain't leaving here without you}

"Seventeen."

"And how long have you lived here?"

"Twelve."

He came here at five. That's harsh...

"Come here..."

Vlad slowly crept up to him, ready to escape at the sign of a trap. Freeland enveloped him in a hug, which Vlad recoiled from at first, but slowly returned it.

'This is what acceptation feels like? It's... Nice-agghh!'

He was quite literally cut from his thoughts by a combat knife lodged in the small of his back.

"... And die, freak!"

{To die unknown}

Enraged by his deception, Vlad grabbed Freeland with his wing arms, and raised him up into the air. He then stomped, which lit up the nearby area in a blue hue in his mind's eye. He retrieved his weapons, a pair of stalagmite daggers, and held them in his Human (ish) hands, before covering Freeland's body in brutal gashes in a fit of blind fury, not realising what he was doing. In fact, his primal instincts were telling him he loved it, and seeing as how they were currently in control of his mind and actions, he decided he did love it.

{Would crush the fish lens we all see through}

Until a blue-armoured blonde rammed into him from the side with super Human strength, taking him off his feet.

"My name Is Michael J. Caboose... And I... Hate... Taxes!"

What?

Before he could react, Caboose unloaded his rifle into Vlad's Aura, shattering it instantly. When Vlad lunged, Caboose grabbed him by a wing and smacked him off a wall, rendering him unconscious... Or was he?

{To kill the glare}

"Caboose?! What the hell-cough, cough-happened to you?!"

Freeland demanded, drenched in, and choking on his own blood.

"Oh, we were on the half of the metal bird that flew away. Me, Tucker and Church were further inside the canyon."

"Caboose, this is a cavern, not a canyon."

Freeland entered another coughing fit, even worse this time.

"Just-cough, cough, cough-just go get Church and Tucker, Caboose-cough, cough, cough, cough-now, please!"

Caboose ran back down the canyon, singing Daisy Bell.

"Alright scum, you win..."

Vlad got up, and hoisted the dying soldier off the ground.

"I'm the scum? I'm natural evil. You are a monument of sin. You abuse those you see beneath you, and whine at your superiors to get what you want. Take this mission for example. You weren't originally assigned to this insurgency, were you? You just whined and moaned at your bosses for a chance at revenge. I am to be taken alive... You on the other hand."

A stalagmite plunged into Freeland's left lung, puncturing and deflating it.

"Not so much."

{Expose the ugliness we hold true}

(End song.)

A croaky and painful laugh burst from the mortally wounded man.

"You don't even realise you've killed, do you? Lives have ended-cough-because of you. Families have mourned-cough, cough-because of you. CHILDREN; MY DAUGHTER-COUGH, COUGH, COUGH-HAS DIED-COUGH, COUGH, COUGH, COUGH, COUGH-BECAUSE! OF! YOU!"

The coughing fit came back even worse; Freeland was crying tears of agony and sorrow.

"Just... Just take this. This is all I have left of her, and someone needs to keep it. Let this be a reminder of what you've done, so you'll never even think of trying it again. That girl used to love you-look where that got her... Can you end this? I need to see her."

Vlad's eye allowed a single tear to drop into one of the broken marine's wounds.

"Of course. When you see her, tell her: I am sorry. I was just born this way. And I'm sorry I found my solution too late."

A flash of white signalled the embedding of a blade into Freeland's skull, and the passing of James Freeland from this world, to be remembered as the man who gave Vladimir Rosenkov a wake up call.

"Hey, asshat! You're coming with us now!"

A nod was their only reply.

* * *

A crack boomed through the interrogation room, a direct result of a sharp slap across Vlad's face-courtesy of Alison Texas.

"Alright ugly, time to get up!"

No response.

"Wakey!"

A sharp kick to the groin woke him up, groaning in pain.

"Wakey!"

Another kick, making him scream in agony.

"Good morning sunshine! We've got a few visitors for ya today!"

Alison waved in an odd looking pair of individuals, before taking her leave.

"My apologies, Vlad. Alison was the closest Huntress at hand-we didn't think she'd take her time waking you up."

Vlad let out a high pitched shriek undetectable by Human ears, revealing the man speaking to be a lean man holding a cup of coffee he could smell from here. He wore glasses, and had scraggly hair. The woman beside him, looked-sounded, a lot stricter. She stood with a sharp posture, unlike the man, who slouched. She wore half moon glasses and kept her hair in a neat bun.

"You're probably wondering why you're here-"

"No. I know exactly why I'm here."

My voice revealed his face, which showed surprise... Unlike the woman's, who was stoic.

"Pray tell."

"I am here, because I'm a monster. I killed children, men and women. I stole their livestock. I literally fed off of their lives for the better part of seventeen years. I'm here to be put down like the animal I am."

The surprise never left his face, it even slightly leaked over to the woman, if only for a few seconds.

"That's not why you're here, Vlad. You're here, because I want you to come to my school."

Now it was Vlad's turn to be surprised.

"Will there be people there?"

"Yes-"

"I decline."

Ozpin sighed.

"Why is that?"

"I will kill them all."

Ozpin then did something completely unexpected: he chuckled.

"We have blood bags in case you ever get thirsty, and there will be an over-abundance of Grimm to feast upon."

"Yes, for now."

Confusion covered his face like a blanket.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you think I didn't try that? They moved out of the area within a week of my feast's beginning. They learned to avoid me."

Ozpin hummed.

"We can get some livestock, then we will have blood for you, and fresh meat for everyone else."

Vlad nodded in approval.

"I will tend to them in my spare time, it'll bring back some old memories-most of them good."

He outstretched his wing hand, which Ozpin shook.

"However, I want to remain hidden from the rest of the student body until initiation."

"Of course, you can join me in Beacon immediately; help me set up that farm."

* * *

The Abomination...

Song: Psychosocial-Slipknot

1900 years ago...

"Oo lot ahrk suleykaar Grimm! For voknau faal wah enfan vul laas kotin daar krent sil!"

An old, ominous voice chanted, as he prepared his creation, his masterpiece, for rebirth.

A mangled pile of flesh sat upon a satanic altar, with the scent of rotten meat hanging around like a pirate on a noose.

"Ok kopraan fent kos hin verlovaasniir do dinok ahrk aldak!Guvok mok voth nar ful yolus nii vust tir rith faal Krein!"

The flesh pile was, in fact, a corpse. The corpse of a boy known as Silas Reaves. He was a good boy, until he met Kalvin. He taught him to hate, and to kill. This boy became a mass-murderer, and wiped out several towns, before finally being taken down by a horde of vengeful relatives, who stabbed, impaled, and burned him.

"Silas Reaves fen kos hin unahzaal nuksliin, ahrk fen kos mindok ol Paagol Dilon!"

The runes on the altar glowed black, and began absorbing light.

Then, a purple ball of light appeared over what used to be Silas. This light was his soul. The soul was returned to the body, which caused it to spasm uncontrollably.

"Hello Silas. Did you miss me-"

A mangled hand grasped Kalvin by the throat, and crushed it with a light squeeze.

"No."

And with that, The Walking Dead shambled into the forest of Eternal Snow (old name for the Snowy Forest, where he wandered for 1900 years, searching for man-flesh.)

* * *

25 years ago...

On his 1917th birthday, he caught the scent of people. This sparked a hunger in him, and he broke out into a full sprint, easily reaching 40mph. He ran straight into a train full of Dust and people. Most people would have been killed by this event, but the only way to kill Silas now, was to totally incinerate him, then separate the ashes so they can't reconnect.

{I did my time and I want out, so effusive

Fate, it doesn't cut, the soul is not so vibrant}

Silas dragged himself on top of the train, then tore a hole in the roof to get inside. He clamped down on the throat of a girl before she could scream, and beat a man to death with said girl's arm. Then, he tore one of the ancient weapons out of his back, a pitchfork. He laughed sadistically, then plunged it into the chest of an approaching police officer.

{The reckoning, the sickening

Packaging, subversion, pseudo-sacrosanct, perversion}

He retrieved a handgun from the corpse, and pulled the trigger. The bullet put a hole in the head of a fleeing passenger, which amazed him. The most advanced weapon technology from his time was the crossbow, so the concept of guns was a spectacular discovery to him. He unloaded the clip into the crowd, then charged forwards; fighting his way through the cart like the unstoppable force of Grimm he was. His rotten fist smashed a woman's head against the side of the cart, then he spun around and decked a whole group of civilians who decided to try and fight back.

{Go drill your deserts, go dig you graves

Then fill your mouth with all the money you will save}

They were all literally beneath him: he was always tall, even before his resurrection and repurposing. He stood at a whopping 7ft8", forcing him to slouch down more than usual while inside the cart. Another contributing factor to his lack of mobility was the amateur attempt at repairing his body-courtesy of Kalvin.

{Sinking in, getting smaller again

I'm done, it has begun, I'm not the only one}

One arm was like his old one: muscular, but proportionate to the rest of his old body... While the other was roughly the same size as his old torso-which was pretty big-and could now easily toss a DeathStalker across a canyon. His once emerald green eyes were now a murky grey, and the whites of his eyes were tainted with a dull yellow hue. His brilliant blonde hair now resembled straw, in both appearance, and texture. The protective layer of flesh-more commonly known as skin-adorning his body was a disgrace, a pathetic attempt at resembling life. Burns and scars were scattered across the beast's chalky, bone white skin... At least, in some places. His body's flesh is not all his own. Over half of it belongs to his old victims, which was taken by Kalvin to fill in the missing gaps of Silas's biomass, Some of it even belonged to an Ursa.

{And the rain will kill us all

If we throw ourselves against the wall

But no one else can see

The preservation of the martyr in me }

Once the cart was cleared, he ripped the door off, then tore open the rear end of the next cart, before continuing the massacre. This cycle repeated over, and over again, until he had cleared the whole train. What seemed strange to him though, was that he could still smell living Humans...

{Psychosocial, psychosocial, psychosocial

Psychosocial, psychosocial, psychosocial}

A bullet tore clean through his throat, leaving a gaping hole the size of a tennis ball to mark the shot. However, this only served to fuel his anger like a tree shoved onto a bonfire.

"Alright, buddy: put your rotten flesh mitts up in the air where I can see 'em!"

Silas turned, and found a Bullhead warship flying beside the train, with a team of four peculiar people packed around the doorway.

{Oh, there are cracks in the road we lay

But where the temple fell, the secrets have gone mad

This is nothing new but when we killed it all

The hate was all we had}

"I don't think you realise just how close you are to losing your meat-sleeves, Pheasant!"

The White-Haired-Sniper-Woman narrowed her eyes, then widened them as the train cart's door hurtled towards them like a mouse fleeing from a Cat. The team of four-now revealed to be the revered Beacon Academy Hunter hit-squad: Team OGRE (Oscar Ozpin, Glynda Goodwitch, Summer Rose, and Qrow Ebonheart)

Glynda fired a purple projectile which launched Silas from the train, into the forest. The group hastily surrounded the hulking mass of psychotic rage.

{Who needs another mess, we could start over

Just look me in the eyes and say I'm wrong

Now there's only emptiness venomous insipid

I think we're done, I'm not the only one}

(For their descriptions (with the exception of Summer and Qrow) I will only be describing where their appearance differentiates from the show)

Ozpin stood proudly at the front, holding a black baton in his right hand firmly planting it in the ground. His hair was black, and styled, and he wore a genuine smile that would not reappear his features for many a year after this day...

Glynda stood to the right of the beast, her wavy blonde hair whipped about in a sudden gust of wind. She had worn a white and red dress with orange spiralled patterns running around the waist of the dress. For some unknown reason, she also decided it would be best if she wore sunglasses out for that mission, because she thought it'd've been sunny...

Summer Rose crouched behind Silas, quickly setting up her Winter Rose high-impact sniper rifle, because the kickback from this weapon would be enough to send a 15-year-old girl flying through the air like a Cat that ate the last of the Tuna. Her white cloak suffered for her needs; collecting all sorts of mud from the ground. The black dress beneath fared infinitely better, however; performing the act relatively unharmed. She always decided that black would be best for her clothes, because red doesn't show up on black...

Qrow Ebonheart wore his usual raggedy old cloak that covered most of his form. His beloved scythe: Chupacabra, was looking just as old and rickety as ever... At least, that's what he wants everyone to think. He beheld a rather fashionable beard from beneath his hood, and had grey eyes that could freak out emos everywhere; way too creepy...

{And the rain will kill us all

If we throw ourselves against the wall

But no one else can see

The preservation of the martyr in me}

"As Summer ever so sweetly asked before: put your hands up in the air, and don't go reaching for any weapons, because Summer will know."

"Yeah, and Ebonheart'll tear your balls off if ya touch me, cause I've got a little girl back home."

"Actually Rose, I'm technically your adopted brother as of... Yesterday. I was gonna tell you, then GOD (Giovani Orion Daniels, old professor of Beacon.) called us out here. So, I'm Qrow Rose now-"

Silas used the distraction to toss his pitchfork at Ozpin, who batted it away with his baton, before retrieving the hidden sword from within. Then, Summer took the shot, which went clear through Silas's kneecap... And into Ozpin's.

Their leader screamed in pain, and used the baton to prop himself up.

Qrow leapt forwards; swinging Chupacabra in an uppercut slice, before batting away the approaching fist using the blunt end, and planting her directly into the spine of Silas Reaves, who was silent.

"How'd'y like that, big guy?"

"I LOVE IT LIKE A CROSSBOW TO THE EYEBALL, BIRDY!"

Silas roared, before tearing a halberd out of his chest, and decking Qrow, who let go of Chupacabra in place of twin scythes.

Gylnda entered the fray, by launching a barrage of icicles at him, which were intercepted by oily shadows, which then chose her as a target; closing in from all sides, encompassing her in the endless abyss of The Darkness.

Ozpin was now close enough to slash at the zombie's heels, earning him a large thump over the head, because Silas's gargantuan arm flung out, desperately trying to save himself from falling to the cold, yet soft, ground.

Qrow dived down for the kill, aiming for the throat-obviously thinking decapitation would work (news flash: no. It would not.)

The head bounced three times, three times before the body reattached it like a magnet.

"FLESHNETISM? I LLLOOOOVE IT! I WANT YOUR WINGS, BIRDIE! GIVE EM HERE!"

Qrow obliged, and slammed his "wings" into Silas's temples, achieving nothing but the loss of his remaining armaments.

"THANK YOUOOO! NOW DIE!"

Said armaments basically teleported into Qrow's shoulders, incapacitating him.

"Qrow!"

Summer unleashed a barrage of molten tungsten rounds which slowed Silas's approach to a stalking pace, but not stopping it.

{Fake anti-fascist lie

(Psychosocial)

I tried to tell you but

(Psychosocial)

Your purple hearts are giving out

(Psychosocial)}

A scream stopped the firing for four long seconds. Glynda was a sobbing wreck, curled up in a foetal position with oily tendrils stabbing at her from every angle-she couldn't escape-and even watching was difficult (mainly because Grimm had projected a shadow zone to use his power in the day.)

{Can't stop a killing idea

(Psychosocial)

If it's hunting season

(Psychosocial)

Is this what you want?

(Psychosocial)

I'm not the only one}

(End song.)

The four seconds ended with a gunshot, and a pained cry of: "NO!"

Summer had taken her eyes off the ball for too long, and Silas had capitalised on her distraction by pointing Winter Rose's nozzle at her gut and pulling the trigger; running away with it, and Chupacabra.

Qrow shuffled over to the corpse-to-be, almost crying.

"S-S-Summer?"

"Qrow: g-get Ruby... Keep her safe... Could you... Could you read me that poem... You found?"

Qrow nodded, and began reading The Last Rose of Summer.

"Tis the last rose of summer,

Left blooming alone;

All her lovely companions

Are faded and gone;

No flower of her kindred,

No rosebud is nigh,

To reflect back her blushes,

Or give sigh for sigh.

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one!

To pine on the stem;

Since the lovely are sleeping,

Go, sleep thou with them-"

Summer cut him off with a violent coughing fit, muttering her dying words.

"Thus kindly I scatter,"

Qrow began crying, he decided he'd finish it, for her.

"Thy leaves o'er the bed,

Where thy mates of the garden

Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow,

When friendships decay,

And from Love's shining circle

The gems drop away.

When true hearts lie withered,

And fond ones are flown,

Oh! who would inhabit

This bleak world alone?"

* * *

The Lonely...

Song: Anthem of the Lonely-Nine Lashes

?: Weiss! They are here to KILL you! Go!

Weiss: No! I'm not leaving without you-

The grey figure cut her off with a powerful roundhouse kick, which launched her out of the nearby window... And into a Dust-car.

{A heart made of stone

Callous and bone

Fracture and tear it out

To let it go}

?: Alright you feral creatures: DO YOUR WORST!

He charged forwards, performing a 360° spin and drawing the tonfa residing within its sheath on his wrist. The approaching Chameleon split in two horizontally, clearing his path. He leapt over the detached lower half; drop kicking a Bull in the process. When the figure landed, he planted his heel into the ground and spun, this time wielding a kukri taken from his belt, also slashing at a Wolf's knees, before driving it into his jaw. A front flip performed perfectly knocked the Bull's morning star into the ceiling, and when he landed, the well placed tonfa entered the Mammal's right Pectoral muscle; deflating the right Lung in doing so.

{And to think

I called it my own

And I would have never thought

The pain could grow}

The intimidating-almost regal-figure knew that Wolves never traveled alone: they like to hunt in packs. So, he leapt down the endless staircase... And landed directly in the middle of a group of four Wolves, who looked incredibly peeved.

Goon uno: There he is!

Goon dos: He killed Tom...

Goon tres: That... That Human lapdog!

Goon cuatro: Let's get him!

Goon dos: You're gonna pay, Jasper!

Jasper: You'll have to get your calculators, to work out the sum... Because I've killed too many of you goons, I'm afraid I've lost count!

Goon dos: We don't accept money for blood spilt.

{So I'll break it

Knowing what you said

The pain is what you make it

Sadly you are so mistaken

I will take you with a grain

And step into the changes

Throw away the empty heart}

The aforementioned goons all growled in unison, and charged, as Jasper knew they would do. He raised his hands above his head, feigning surrender. They got closer, and closer... And closer. They were upon him, charging from different directions, about to turn him into a game of 'Pop Up Pirate', when... He drew the cleaver on his back, and leapt into the air, forcing his body to spin by using a machete as a springboard. Two of the morons impaled each other; coincidentally being cuatro and tres, the two aggressive ones. Uno tried killing him with a horizontal slash that wasn't aimed far enough, and Jasper simply ignored it; instead focusing on making uno's head roll off. He succeeded. Dos was smart. He observed.

{Right now

Never want to leave this place

And right now

See it in a different way

So right now

Even if you take me on

I'll stand the lonely}

Jasper: May you grace me with your title? I've simply been referring to you as "Goon dos" in my head; completely unbefitting of such an intellectual person.

Goon dos: (shrug) Sure, why not? You're a dead man anyway. The name's Tobias.

Jasper: Tobias..?

Tobias: Tobias Carven... Why?

Jasper: So I can send my regards to your family for bringing up such a worthy foe.

Tobias: Huh, well: what's your name? Just in case you lose.

A smile graced Jasper's features.

Jasper: You know, I find myself wanting to end you less and less as we talk. My name's Jasper Whitehall. A pleasure to meet you, not so much to be killing you.

{It's harder to know

Just where to go

If only the stars aligned

The sunsets glowed

I don't need

A calm in a storm

Or something to scream about

With empty lungs}

The two locked blades, testing strength first. It became apparent to both of them very quickly that Tobias was stronger. Jasper rolled away, and unleashed a flurry of slashes and stabs, to test his defence. It turned out he was a competent defender, and he quickly turned the tables, swinging the claymore he wielded slowly, but with enough force to make blocking a futile endeavor. Jasper began darting around Tobias, striking where he was open, but those gaps were closed up as quickly as they appeared. This pattern continued for quite some time-two hours, to be precise. The two fought themselves into exhaustion, and couldn't stand by the end of it.

{So I'll break it

Knowing what you said

The pain is what you make it

Sadly you are so mistaken

I will take you with a grain

And step into the changes

Throw away the empty heart}

Tobias: You know: I never... Liked those four, anyway. Why don't we call this a tie?

Jasper: Indeed. We must duel again another time, maybe make it an annual occurrence!

Tobias: Dude, you're not guarding the Schnee's anymore. You can stop looking for big words to say."

Jasper: Fine. You'd best get going, the Police will get here soon, and I don't think being seen with the head of the hit squad will help me out.

Tobias: My serial code is: 2447386974279, got it?

Jasper: Yeah, get gone!

Tobias saluted mockingly, adding a "yessir!" For effect, before hobbling into the shadows.

Police #1: Freeze!

Jasper looked around, and noticed Tobias was gone, so...

Police #2: You in there?! He said freeze!

Ohh, Schnee... You backstabbing little-

Police #1: I will open fire!

Jasper froze, and reluctantly raised his hands: he couldn't dodge bullets in his condition.

Police #1: Jasper Whitehall, you're under arrest for the murder of valued clients of the Schnee Dust Company, what say you in your defence?

Jasper ;) : ...

Police #1: Hey! I'm talking to you-

The officer had strolled right up to Jasper, and pushed his shoulder. Only; it went right through.

Police #2: Holograms?! You gotta be f#^?*g kidding me!

{Right now

Never want to leave this place

And right now

See it in a different way

So right now

Even if you take me on

I'll stand the lonely

Stand the lonely}

* * *

1 year later...

{Right now

Never want to leave this place

And right now

See it in a different way

So right now

Even if you take me on

I'll stand the lonely

Stand the lonely}

Jasper shook his head, cleared his mind, and took aim. The rifle is his own creation: The Kishock Harpoon Gun. It, well, fires a harpoon at near enough 400mph. While it drops a lot faster than bullets, a direct hit means death, no matter who you are, unless its like a B+ class Grimm, or an S class Hunter... Usually. It will impale, then-if they have Aura-it will release a jolt of 10,000 volts of electricity, draining even the revered Arc family's reserves from 100% to 0% in five seconds. Then it releases barbs and spins to wound the target even more, before releasing Burn Dust, and erupting in a fiery explosion.

He took aim, released a breath, then fired.

The harpoon soared through a window, becoming a glass MIRV as it hit the target like a bullet train. It took a few seconds, but eventually, he dropped. Bullets fired on his position, the Police finally finding his location thirty whole seconds after the hit. The resulting mad dash for freedom caused him to deviate from his chosen course. A left turn-or five-later, a rather feminine pair of hands dragged him into a van, before knocking him out.

{Right now

Never want to leave this place

And right now

See it in a different way

So right now

Even if you take me on

I'll stand the lonely

Stand the lonely}

(End song)

* * *

Glynda didn't like him.

How can a boy go from a girl's bodyguard to the world's most infamous assassin?

He didn't even look like much; then again, neither did Silas when she was younger; more arrogant.

Jasper would probably stand at 6ft 4", if he wasn't unconscious. Even then, he seemed to have a tendency to 'Jungle Run', or crouch walk, with his head hovering around 5ft 11" off the ground. His grey leather jacket boasted his emblem: a skull with two cleavers, and two harpoons from his rifle protruding from the diagonals; engulfed in fire, and jolting with lightning. The trousers he wore were very practical. They were black, loose, and tough. His shoes were basic, kind of what you'd expect someone to wear to a job interview. But they were modded to allow him to move silently, even to the famed ears of the Cat Faunus. That mistake was what caused the death of infamous assassin Zer0.

His weapons were curious, as they were all made to kill quickly, or as a last resort. The tonfa was sharpened to the point of where a tap would unleash a huge gout of blood. The kukri's point was made for impaling. The cleaver seemed useless for stabbing, but the added weight of a blunt, flat tip, would make it an excellent slasher, used to decapitate, or remove limbs. The rifle was a sadistic, but effective weapon. And the boy, he was lethal, she'd be the first to admit it. As she looked over his equipment one last time, she noticed an hourglass built into the handle. It was made of an ebony metal, which was harder than tungsten, and the sand which resided within adopted a red hue...

"How did he get that?!"

"I was hoping he'd tell us, Glynda."

Ozpin announced from the back of the van, wielding a cup of coffee steaming like an active volcano. To some, strange people, the sight of an Ozpin shrouded in darkness holding a mug containing coffee hot enough to kill a man, would be absolutely terrifying. But to a newly awakened Jasper, he looked ridiculous.

"Ha... If you're trying to intimidate me, you're failing badly. Maybe if you used the coffee's steam and a flashlight to seem mystical, then maybe I'd be afraid of being stuck in a van with a mad man. You simply cannot scare an assassin with theatricality. That's half our job."

"No, half your job is killing, the other half is getting paid. You assassins waste your talents. Why not get a job that isn't illegal? You could join the Special Tasks Group, or-"

"You could come with me, to Beacon. Get an honest job that operates along the same lines as an assassin's: kill, get paid, repeat."

"That is all well and good, but do you know who forced me down this road?"

"No, I -"

"Geist Schnee."

Glynda raised an eyebrow inquisitively, while Ozpin hummed in surprise.

"He didn't like how close Weiss and myself had gotten, and used the attempt on her life as an excuse to frame me. He bribed the Police; told them to announce that the White Fang members were, in fact, Faunus SDC business partners. I didn't choose this, but it's all I have."

"As interesting as that sounds, I still want to know how you found a Fate Timer."

"Huh... I don't know. I think it was my payment for this military assassination a few months ago. The guy said he didn't want it, said it was haunting him. Anyway, I discovered its true use, and implanted it into Metzger. Turns out, these things collect latent souls. It doesn't absorb Aura, it snatches the core upon death, well... That's how it's supposed to work, anyway. I found a way to actually use these collected souls! It was rather easy, come to think of it. It reacts with manual activation processes. So I put a button on it. The effects were... Enlightening, shall we say? I can now instantly kill an impure, or corrupt being with a black soul using this."

Jasper pressed said button and the cleaver became translucent, purple, and was wrapped in black fire. As this form remained active, the sand residing within the hourglass faded away. It was because of this, that he quickly shut it off.

"It comes at a price, though. Every second, I lose a grain of sand. Every grain of sand is a compressed black soul. The fun part is: I can't kill myself with it, because I own the Timer."

"Well, I suppose we could make a cover story for you, a new name. You could join my school, get yourself a new life. What do you say?"

He paused for a good two minutes, working out every possibility, every loophole, every red herring.

"Only if my friend may also join."

"Who is he?"

"Tobias Carven. Mercenary extraordinaire."

Ozpin hummed, while Glynda scowled.

"As if hired killers weren't enough, we have to go recruiting hired rapists and drunkards off the streets on the whim of a killer-!"

"Deal. Where is he?"

"He should be here any. Minute... Now!"

As he said this, a side of the van blew open, and Tobais entered with an arrogant swagger Jasper hadn't seen in a whole year.

"Ah, Tobias! Good to see you again. I'm afraid you're coming with me. You see, I've been granted a free pass out of crime, and I'd like to bring you with me."

"Where are we going, and can I still fight?"

"Beacon Academy for gifted Huntsmen and Huntresses. I believe this statement also answers your second question."

Five seconds later, Tobias's trademarked evil smirk of evilness broke through.

"When do we start?"

* * *

The Veteran...

Song: Bodies-Drowning Pool

A boy stood atop a sniper's nest with his father, wielding an old hunting rifle.

"Alright now, son. Take a deep breath... Wait... Let it out... Now fire!"

The boy followed his father's orders to the letter, firing the gun, nearly knocking himself over in the process.

The boy focused, and saw that the glass bottle his father had set up about 300 metres away was still in one piece.

"I missed..."

"Hey, Wilhelm. Don't worry about it, that was your first shot-ever-there's no need to get all upset. Let me see what you're doing wrong... Aha! You're cocking your left arm up too high. It's throwing your aim off to the right. Lower your arm."

Wilhelm obliged.

"Good. Now try again."

The boy began the process again: slow your heartbeat, take a deep breath, exhale, then fire. This time, the bottle exploded in a shower of glass.

"I hit it, dad!"

A chuckle escaped the renowned sniper.

"Huh, yeah... You did..."

His expression became somber, and he put his hand on Will's shoulder.

"You do know what this means, don't you?"

"Yeah! I get to enlist early, and go fight the bad guys, with you!"

A grim smile adorned the father's features.

"No. You don't have a choice. You have to join a tribe. I won't be able to stop them, either. I personally think you'll make a good Praetorian."

Disbelief made itself known on his face.

"Aw, come on, Will! You know the law. At the age of eight years old, every male child must take a marksmanship test. If they succeed, then they must enlist in a militant tribe of the AMC."

"Yeah, I got it-"

Wilhelm was cut short (well, his dad's O2 supply was, anyway!) when a depleted plutonium round entered his dad's throat...and deflated his eyeball.

{Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor}

The boy's pained cries alerted the military platoon of the ensuing assault on the facility.

"Jesus! Will?! You still here? Talk to me!"

Jacob Thatch shook the near lifeless eight-year-old boy.

"Y-yeah... I'm here..."

"Do you need help?"

The boy's face twisted with fury.

{Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floooooor}

"No. I need his rifle."

Jacob gave him a concerned glance.

"I meant now, Thatch!"

The boy got no such help, so he growled, and picked up the rifle.

{Beaten why for (why for)}

The scope lined up with a Vale army trooper holding a sniper rifle. Wilhelm's eyes widened; this man killed his father. In the blink of an eye, the man's kneecap grew a new breathing hole. His screams could be heard from the nest. Wilhelm then shot off each of the man's fingers, followed by his ears, then his toes THROUGH his steel capped boots. He then began to work on even more of the joints, destroying the ankles and knees, before tearing through the elbows and shoulders.

{Can't take much more

Here we go!

Here we go!

Here we go!}

Eventually, he found himself down to two bullets, so he put one into the man's eyeball, and another in his throat.

{One-Nothing wrong with me

Two-Nothing wrong with me

Three-Nothing wrong with me

Four-Nothing wrong with me}

He then turned to Jacob, grabbed his rifle out of his hands, and continued to decimate the offenders, until none were left standing.

{One-Something's got to give

Two-Something's got to give

Three-Something's got to give

Now

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floooooor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floooooor

Now!}

(Pause song)

"Douglas, front and centre!"

Wilhelm stumbled over to his CO, and painfully snapped into a salute.

"How many?"

"49, sir."

"How many shots?"

"75, sir."

"How many misses?"

"0, sir."

Eyebrows raised.

"Really? That many shots to kill?"

"26 of those bullets were used on the man who did this, and killed my father, sir."

He gestured to his eye with one hand, and pointed to his dead father with the other.

"My god... Someone get him to the infirmary! He's got a plutonium round in his eyeball!"

The boy was immediately rushed to surgery, where they completely removed his eye, and replaced it with an eyepatch and a large marble.

* * *

Five years later...

Wilhelm Douglas was a name. A respected-and/or feared name. Respect from his allies, because in his five years of service, he had managed to match the kill count of his father's 15 year killing spree. The fear part would most likely take up 75% of a pie chart (if we were to get all mathematical about it). 20% would be the respect part! and the five percent would be hatred. Fear was fed in from both the enemy side, and his side. His allies knew he was "mildly sociopathic" at times, and all his enemies knew was his kill count: 1337. The hatred came in small minorities, usually in the hate mail he'd get from the families of the people he'd killed-generally, they'd be laced with some form of I.E.D.

Nevertheless, today was his first major battle: The Assault on Dragon Keep. He would be positioned on a rear artillery convoy, protecting the artillery all costs. Pretty easy...

... Or so he thought. The idiots they had on the front lines were actually useless! They had decided that the best tactic they could use to combat the defenders was to keep charging at them and hope that their molten flesh would clog up the machine guns for the next few guys to get annihilated in the minefields.

Seeing as how it was a Saturday-and Wilhelm LOVES Saturdays-he decided he'd help them out a little bit. He did this by shooting the ammo belts on the machine guns, severing the belt in the process. This would create a bullet-free path towards the minefields so they could go out with a bang.

This still wasn't enough, however, as the Vale military was rolling out tanks, and said tanks were decimating the attack force. One thing they didn't account for, was a sniper that had armour-piercing rounds.

(Start song)

{Push me again

This is the end}

Will loaded his AP rounds, twirling his gun around while doing so to increase the visibility of his task.

{Here we go!

Here we go!

Here we go!}

Three tanks erupted in flames, because Will had shot the live HE rounds chambered in the main guns.

{One-Nothing wrong with me}

A driver collapsed onto his controls, and rammed another tank into the minefields.

{Two-Nothing wrong with me}

The enemy sniper tower collapsed, when a bullet tore off a support struts to the structure.

{Three-Nothing wrong with me}

A squad was eviscerated by a tungsten fragmentation round when they decided they were safe to charge at the attacking lines.

{Four-Nothing wrong with me}

More and more enemies fell to Will's rifle; he even took another sniper's rifle, and was now akimbo firing them to great effect... Somehow.

{One-Something's got to give

Two-Something's got to give

Three-Something's got to give

Now!}

Will hastily loaded both guns with HE rounds, and took aim.

{Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floooooor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floooooor}

A large pile of bodies stacked up high, and Wilhelm leapt from his cover, still firing. A hopeful idiot wielding a CQC standard issue bowie knife and shotgun combo charged him, only for Will to employ his melee combat strategy: he began twisting and twirling, spinning his rifle faster and faster; following up with a shot on time with every hit, driving

either a rifle butt, or a bullet into the enemy's body.

{Skin to skin, blood and bone

You're all by yourself, but you're not alone

You wanted in, and now you're here

Driven by hate; consumed by fear}

{Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floooooooooooooooooooooor!

One-Nothing wrong with me

Two-Nothing wrong with me

Three-Nothing wrong with me

Four-Nothing wrong with me

One-Something's got to give

Two-Something's got to give

Three-Something's got to give

Now!

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floooooor!

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floooooor!

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor!

Let the bodies hit the floooooor!

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floooooor!

Hey... Go

Hey... Go

Hey... Go

Hey... Go!}

(End song)

Wilhelm was drenched in the blood of his enemies, and now his combat hype and his bloodlust was wearing off, he realised what he'd just done. His kill count just three hours ago was 1337... It had rose to 2000-that's 663 kills in three hours! He was a monster. So many dead... By his hands, how many more?! Worse still: what of their families? When they hear of his actions, what will they do? If they're anything like Atlas citizens, they'll come looking for him, and impale him on a spike for all to see, he can almost picture it in his head "step right up, and for just $3.95, you can stone The Butcher of Dragon Keep!"

'No! They wouldn't do that to a thirteen-year-old boy... Would they? I would... I did... Granted; he was a man. But I killed so many,'

"THEY'RE COMING FOR ME!"

He screamed both mentally and physically, drawing attention to himself.

"Maybe... Maybe if I get clean, then maybe they won't know it's me!"

He rushed off to the showers, and began frantically scrubbing his hardened flesh to the bone-almost to the point of the author's previous statement being true-his skin seeped blood from the rough treatment, but that only encouraged him.

"IT WON'T LEAVE!"

A few hours later, certain areas of his body were so badly scarred from the scrubbing, and his actual injuries, that they looked like open gashes from someone who had leapt from a jet and survived, somehow not getting flattened like Jewish bread (and no, there will be no Earth-born sand stories (religions) in this story, it was merely a witty observation made to get a reaction from everyone who avoided reading this author's note, and as something to link my terrible analogy of what happens to people who somehow fall out of jets in their spare time and/or scrub to the bone) yet still getting scuff marks from bouncing across rough terrain.

The next day, his sister-who was also his last surviving family member-called him up on the Scroll.

"Jesus, Will! What the hell happened to you?!"

"War, my dearest sister."

Worry was her face's primary expression, while his just appeared traumatised.

"You look like you've got rabies!"

"Hey now, the blood didn't wanna leave. I'm not to blame for tha-"

Horror sparked in his eyes; quickly growing into an inferno of molten terror.

"I-I am to blame! The blood didn't leave because I put it there! The blood wants me to suffer, the dead want me to suffer..."

"Wilhelm."

"... The families, the trees, the birds, THE SKY!..."

"Wilhelm! Look at me!"

"THEY ALL WANT ME DEAD! EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM! I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF SHE CAN BE TRUSTED, SHE COULD BE WITH THEM, YOU COULD BE WITH THEM! TRAITOR!-"

"WILHELM! I am not against you! I'm your sister. Just... Calm down, go-go chill out with Jacob-"

"Dead."

"Oh, how about William-"

"Dead."

"Mathew-"

"Dead."

"Who's still alive?"

"I am."

"Who ELSE?"

"Me."

"No one else lived through Dragon Kee-"

Daisy stopped herself when she saw his eye twitch at the mention of the word "Dragon"

"ALL DEAD! And I'm next on the chopping block."

She couldn't try to comfort him any more, because he smashed his Scroll against a nearby wall.

Four years later-two months before Beacon Academy begins its 1st term.

* * *

'All that's left. All that's ever left. Is me. I am a survivor. I don't die for anyone. I live to kill those who want to kill me. And that's everyone'

Those were the thoughts of the now alcoholic Wilhelm Douglas, who now had many more titles under his-metaphorical-belt than The Butcher of Dragon Keep. The list went as follows (clears throat:) The Monster of The Bridge, Wilhelm 'The Destroyer' Douglas, Death Incarnate, Shinigami, and Archangel. Granted, these thoughts were interrupted by the sweet bitter taste of 74.98% alcohol-his own special concoction.

"Hold the line, they said. Nothing bad happens here, they said. DIE! They said. Well look at them now! God, Monty, Allah, or whatever your name is; what did I do? WHAT THE F#$K DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS?!"

He threw his bottle into the sky, then shot it, showering the dead with glass.

"IS THIS ABOUT THE KILLING?! YOU KNOW THAT WAS SELF-DEFENCE THE FIRST TIME... OR A LIFE FOR AN EYEBALL... OR-just revenge... I... Deserve this? Damn it! He killed my father and half blinded me. Now I'm being punished because I made him pay?!"

Will had just held off a Vacuo incursion force on his own for five days straight, needless to say he was tired, angry, depressed, drunk, hung over, and tired-oh... Maybe I'm drunk, too. (Joke! I'm fourteen. The stuff tastes terrible anyway-at least, that's what people I know say...)

"No, you are surviving a lifestyle that would kill anyone else. You are enduring a cruel life forced upon you by tradition."

Wilhelm aimed his trusty rifle, Arbiter, point-blank between the eyes of... Professor Ozpin.

"Do you even know where you are, old man? You're in the middle of a war zone-"

The "war zone" Will was talking about dissolved around him, revealing his true location... A mental asylum holding cell.

"-What in the seven plains of Hell is this?! I was, they were... Did any of that actually happen? How much of my life has been real so far?"

"All of it. I just had you relocated here when you passed out drunk in the middle of your renowned death dance during the third wave. We left you here to see how long it would take you to notice my illusion, you failed that test, unfortunately."

Will thought long and hard through the headache, the migraine, the slurred senses, the painful memories, and the disorganised web of stars sprawled across the sky of his mind-also known as his train of thought. He then formed words for his mouth to attempt to say, and squinted his eyes.

"How did the real battle go?"

"Quite well, actually. The Vacuo invaders retreated as soon as someone on your side mentioned the name: Shinigami. Five waves in."

"Good... I think.."

Ozpin took advantage of Wilhelm's dazed state, and cut to the chase.

"How would you like to come to Beacon?"

"B-bacon? Sure... I could... Do with some... Bacon..."

The boy then collapsed In a heap on the floor.

"Well... That was a thing."

* * *

And... Done! Just letting you all know I FINALLY GOT AN ACCOUNT! No more anonymous reviewing for me, no sir! Also, I'm not gonna be making a chapter this long, this is just introducing you to my OCs (one guess who the antagonist is.) For now, I've been ThatInternetGuy, ending my chapter in the most generic and annoying way possible.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Devil in Disguise

So, it's been a few hours since my last update! I'm gonna be uploading all the wonderful ideas I've had over the past few months, but don't expect any of them to be very far in. I only work on what I feel like working on, and chapter two of this has been in the making for three months.

* * *

"So, Vlad: how are the cattle doing?"

"They are well. I've tended to the few we had, and now they'll be popping out new ones every few months."

Vladimir Rosenkov announced, proud of his work. The Bat Faunus wore a vicious smile that, in truth, was his attempt at a warm grin.

"Glad to hear it. I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

Ozpin asked, knowing full well that in Vlad's mind, both were very bad. Very bad indeed.

"Let's start with the good news."

"You'll be making some new friends!"

An audible thud boomed through the underground stables, a direct consequence of Vlad banging his head against a wall.

"... And the bad news?"

"You have no way out of it."

"Of course I do!"

"No. You don't. Besides: my school only houses children marked as students, if you're not with me, then you're on your own."

Vlad snarled in frustration.

"Again?"

Ozpin nodded.

"You can go home-oh, wait. Never mind."

Vlad would be squinting his eyes in a hostile manner, if he had any control over his eyelids.

"Be careful what you say, old man. It may come back to bite you later."

Vlad got to readying his equipment; his people deterrent. His equipment consisted of a pair of stalagmite daggers, sharpened to a lethal point, a set of Cow leather armour, with Grimm skull decoration, and a black metal death mask, custom built to offer ear protection without disrupting his echolocation.

"I really don't believe mentioning your recently demolished cavern system will bite me in any way-"

"I wasn't talking about that."

Vlad flashed his fangs, before striding out the room with a deadly aura around him. (Not to be confused with Aura, which, when used in the RWBY context of the word, will always be capitalised. I'm referring to the intimidating feel of the creature.)

'Did he just call himself "it?"'

Ozpin sighed, cleared his head of the rare Faunus breed, and made his way to the Assembly Hall.

"Hugh... This is going to be a long, long day."

* * *

"My god... How long can a f#%€$¥g airship take to cross 200 miles of ocean?!"

Tobias raged, while crushing a coffee cup (think Starbucks...) in his left hand, and massaging his right temple with the other, free, non coffee covered hand.

"Oh, that's just f#%€$¥g fantastic! Aaa aargh! It burns! It f#%€$¥g stings like a f#%€$¥g b#%€h! Damn it, Jas! Don't just stand there and watch like a pedophile in a playground; get a towel! Or an ice pack! Or some f#%€$¥g cookies!-You know what? Get all three!"

Jasper bowed sarcastically, before assuming his role of retarded butler.

"But of course sir, jalapeños, Burn crystals, and a flamethrower coming right up! Put your hand under a tap."

Jasper sat back down, and watched in amusement and/or amazement at his friend's stupidity. The only person to match his skill in battle was defeated by a cup of coffee he attacked first.

"Well, f#%k you very much, friend!"

Sometimes, this boy's temper gets out of line. It's on days like these that he has to be reminded where he is, and who he's talking to.

"Tobias. Need I remind you that we are on an airship en route to Beacon Academy: the world's most renowned training facility for glorified mercenaries. Any one of these people could be the challenge we both seek. Any one of them could have the skill to best, and, if need be, kill you. So, watch the language. Or I will have Kishock teach you to act like a socially acceptable citizen... In Hell."

Jasper twirled the collapsed sniper around his trigger finger for effect.

"Sure... D#%k..."

"What was that, my dearest companion?"

"Nothing."

"Oh... I would have thought that you would have-Holy Angel of Pancakeia!"

Jasper was cut short from his taunting session, by a rather ill looking blond who decked him in a mad dash to the bin.

"Holy nutballs! You-you have puke on your jacket!"

Time froze, people quivered in fear, the sky turned grey, thunder shook Remnant, triggering numerous volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in the immediate vicinity. Then, the Sun exploded, plunging the world in darkness... Except for Jaune, and Jasper.

Jasper slowly got to his feet, calmly unfolded Kishock, and took aim.

'Jaune Arc, renowned runt of the litter of the newest generation of Arcs. Which is a considerable failure, if you take into consideration the Arc family has three members: Verte, Blanc, and Jaune Arc. Verte being his mother, and Blanc, his father. He also seems to have thrown away a considerable advantage. Kishock says he's neglected activating his Aura. Oh well... He's dead anyway.'

A muscular arm pulled the gun to aim at the ceiling, saving the blond's life, but also murdering a considerable chunk of the ceiling.

"There's no need to go killing the guy."

"..."

"Yet. It's a jacket-"

"My jacket."

"-Which can be washed. Come on. We've got places to be, and things to kill."

Jasper took a deep breath, then released it. He'd almost lost control of himself then. This was a problem he'd noticed a few months back. Challenge was-in his opinion-a hard thing to come across. Subconsciously, he had been seeking challenge ever since he met Tobias, whether he was taking down a merc group, or attacking random people who held weapons on their person-like the poor git over there.

"You're right. Thank you."

They both moved to the exit, keeping a safe distance from the Arc boy, who was still... Relieving himself of his last meal.

"Eh, don't mention it. Just a question, you know, just out of curiosity. Do you ever, like, get this feeling. Where you... Uh... Feel like you wanna just... Kill this person in front of you, just to relieve some uh, some of your built up stress?"

The boy in front of him turned around, saw the bulky mercenary, and hurriedly increased his walking speed.

"No, why?!"

Jasper questioned, surprised by the sheer brutality of what the question implied.

Tobias stopped, burst out laughing, then folded himself to a 90° angle, still wetting himself laughing.

"D-dude! I was... I was just... Just messing with that guy! He was listen-listening to our conversation... And I... It was just too sweet to pass up, you know?!"

"No."

The boy in the grey jacket sighed, then carried on walking.

"Oh, come on Jas! It was just a joke!"

* * *

A scruffy boy stumbled off the airship, wincing in pain as the sun's rays assaulted his retinas. Wilhelm Douglass tripped over himself, and collapsed in a heap on the concrete path.

"Ahh... S#%t!- Whoa!"

Wilhelm caught sight of Beacon; the structure easily dwarfing every location he'd visited-except for Dragon Keep-

"No! No. Not gonna do it. I wasn't there. I have plausible deniability."

While this may seem insane to most people, it was his only coping mechanism: lying to himself. In his drunken state, he'd likely believe the spout of utter b#%€$¥^t that was his mouth.

"But still... I must be drunk! They don't build Disney resorts that big!"

He took swigs from his bottle of-potentially lethal-alcohol during his pause, and after he was finished talking to himself like a psychopath, he carried on lumbering about in the general direction of where he was supposed to go like a merman who grew legs.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!"

A crabby white girl squawked, after Wilhelm barged past her, before losing his balance and falling to the ground.

"Jeez, girl... Do you always squawk like a Nevermore who lost her babies?!"

Will cradled his head as if it had been stoned with rusty spoons, while the aforementioned white girl scowled; most likely attempting to create some kind of heat-vision power through the strength of her resolve, willpower, and pure malice.

"How DARE you?!-"

"No~how dare YOU? You think just 'cause you're some "heiress to Schnee co." girl, you are immune to my general sardonic/sarcastic/ cynical/enraged/stereotypical/discriminatory/agitated-you know what? Just list all of the above for when I'm sober... Add drunken to that list, and you've got a bad time. Anyway, my attitude is seen by many-usually my superior officers-as outright appalling. I, however, have seven valid reasons for this: care to hear them?"

He was attempting to bore her so she would leave and do... whatever b#%€$y heiress women do in these places.

"Why not? I've got nothing better to do!"

She didn't try very hard there.

"You know: I'm allergic to badly hidden sarcasm, so please stop it before I vomit alcohol all over your nice. Clean. Dress."

If scowls could kill... Damn! That place would've been a disaster area; dead bodies that appeared to have been mangled and stabbed with a-previously mentioned-rusty spoon littered the pathway, magma rained from where the heavens would've been, if they hadn't been immolated by the aforementioned magma. The Grimm trembled in fear, as they saw a white girl (not referring to skin colour here! Only her clothes) bore a hole in the scruffy, drunken (not to mention HIGHLY flammable due to said drunkenness) child war veteran... With nothing but her eyes-

*SLAP!*

'PAIN! Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain, Pain! Oh god! Even that bullet to the eye wasn't this bad-oh... I didn't actually, uh, feel anything... F#%€$d up nerve endings 'n all.'

There were two things plastered on Wilhelm's face at that moment: a Weiss-sized handprint on his left cheek, and an insane grin.

"I'm sorry, but you're wasting your time knocking: no one's home!"

The boy's appearance was enough proof to confirm that statement.

He wore a pair of worn out grey combat boots-they used to be black-with holes and slashes all over them. His socks were holy (in the empty gap way, not the religious way) and black, though there was a time when they would be considered brown. Due to his many wounds, the rest of his attire was built around concealing these injuries, so he had random bits of cloth torn off his actual clothes, and wrapped around nasty looking scars. His green shirt was a dusty khaki, as were his shorts, the most likely culprit to blame for this occurrence would be the scumbag who put him in so many desert skirmishes. His hair and face were travesties... By civilian standards. There were obvious signs of physical torture, which were memories he suppressed with a resolve that made both the holocaust and apartheid pale in comparison. His dark brown hair had been singed grey, black, and white in patches where flamethrower troopers had almost ended him (they would've succeeded, if it weren't for his Semblance.) His eyebrows resembled boomerangs, because instead of curving, they had sharp angles and straight lines. The most obvious facial feature Weiss noticed was his lack of-or coverage of-his right eye. A bloody bandage had been haphazardly wrapped around his head in a slant, covering 24.687% of his entire head in the white cloth. The one eye she could see, however, appeared to be bloodshot, and was critically scanning her like she was some kidnapped streetwalker, about to be sold to the richest, oldest white guy in the room. The weapons on his person seemed to be incredibly-

"Hello? Testing, testing-is this thing on?!"

He remarked, pointing to his jaw.

"I can hear you, you dunc-"

"No. Is my jaw still attached?"

She was taken aback, to say the least.

"Of course it is! Why wouldn't it be-"

"An Impact Dust fragmentation mortar landed five feet away from me; a piece of it sliced the ligaments in my jaw. Honestly, how has nobody ever asked that question before?!"

Wilhelm shook his head in a confused manner, and left a baffled Weiss a sitting duck for an accidental attack on her luggage.

* * *

'Okay, Vlad: you can do this.'

The giant monster edged towards the light, longing to be able to walk out there unnoticed, but-knowing his luck-Michael Winchester's racist older brother would be out there. Knowing him, he'd most likely force Vlad to tear his throat open all over the snow fairy's nice, white, dress.

*SIGH...*

'Maybe later. For now, I need to see just how depressing he made his speech!'

Vlad leapt onto the roof of the Assembly Hall; quickly scanning the crowd with his Sensory Vision.

{The Author, after realising he never gave a full explanation of Vlad's Semblance, decided he'd do it here. He also pretended he wasn't the one writing this message for reasons unfathomable to the average sane Human being.}

Vlad's Semblance is an odd one. It doesn't affect anything other than himself. Normally, Bats can't see sound. They can sense it; judge how far away things are, but never see it. Vlad's Semblance gives him that power. He cannot see normally, but smell, taste, touch, sound. He can see/detect all of them. If there is a tremor, he will be able to see the source, no matter how far away so long as he feels it. Imagine you're playing a top-down retro shooter... That's the closest the Author can get to describing how Vlad sees the world... Oh! Tint everything different shades of blue too! He can only see blue!

He "saw" a huge crowd of mobile fleshy buffet tables, closing in on Ozpin's position. He also saw a group of morons screwing with a pair of lethal looking guys armed with lethal looking weapons. Should he interfere? Meh, Darwin's theory at work right there.

* * *

"So, how much did you pay for the mutt?"

Russell asked, signing his own death warrant.

"Look at him, Russ, you think he'd pay for a rabid b#%€h like this? He probably found it on the street."

'Oh, so I'm an "IT" now, am I?'

Tobias stood to his full height, towering over the morons' tallest member: Cardin Winchester.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen... Let's keep this civil, shall we? Or is Tobias going to have to make a Dog bed out of your intestines?"

Jasper asked politely, but with hints of venomous offence in his choice of words; these words promised pain if his commands weren't obeyed.

"I don't know; I've seen Chiwawas that seemed more vicious than this thing!"

Sky jabbed, causing the mountain of muscle that responds to the name "Tobias" to tense his aforementioned muscles and growl.

"Now, now, Mr. Lark. I do believe your merry foursome has contradicted itself. You see: Mr. Winchester stated that my companion is a "rabid b#%€h." This implies that he is, in fact, vicious. You, on the other hand, have decided that tiny dogs are scarier than he is. This means one of two things: 1) you are all too incompetent to conceive a consistent story between the four of you, or 2) you have a phobia of Chiwawas."

Lark snarled, and found himself on the floor face-down-after he swung for Jasper's face-with a bloody nose.

"That wasn't very nice, Mr. Lark-ugh!"

Russell had taken a cheap-shot on Jasper from behind, only to have sealed the fate of him and his friends.

"Ha! Suck it, you Faunus-loving queer-!"

Tobias lifted his size 10 boot from the ground directly into the awaiting stomach of Russell Thrush. The Wolf kicked off the poor boy, leaving both him and Dove in a heap on the floor. Cardin roared and punched Toby in the back of the head, staggering him. He followed up with a haymaker to his spine laying him out on the floor. Cardin grinned viciously, and jumped, intent on hospitalising the Faunus scumbag, when Jasper drop-kicked him, landed on his hands, then spun around and planted his foot onto Cardin's throat.

"Mr... Winchester... I recommend restraining your acquaintances in future meetings. You never know; we could have broken their legs... But seeing as how you failed to control your friends, I'll settle for breaking yours next time."

And on that high note, Jasper kicked him in the head, incapacitating him.

* * *

'Well... That was entertaining.'

Vlad thought, before focusing on Ozpin, who was addressing the crowd of wannabe Hunters/Huntresses.

"I'll...keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills-and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose-direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

'That encouraging speech was kind of... Demoralising.'

"Eloquently put, Ozpin. We're all useless and we won't stop being useless until we either die or strive to stop being useless."

Jasper's analogy raised Tobias' eyebrow literally off of his face.

"Dude, what the actual f#%k?!"

"I was simply 'dumbing down' and condensing his speech into something more manageable-"

Jasper's eye caught a glimpse of a certain white-haired heiress in a heated discussion with a redhead and a blonde. Toby noticed him zone out, and followed his view.

"Oh, dude: isn't that the girl you used to do the whole 'body guarding thing' for, right?... Right? Jas? Jas?!"

His eyes scoured the sea of initiates, before they detected him making a beeline for what he thought was the Ballroom.

"Goddamn it Jas! Don't make us the outsiders here!"

Toby called out to his friend/rival, before sighing and chasing after him.

* * *

'So, the Faunus, the Outsider, the Heiress, and the Four Douche-bags are all connected somehow... Wait a minute! That's Cardin! How in the name of all that is fortunate and glorious did he get in here?! Granted: he is strong, and, and tough, but...his tactics are primitive. And he's racist! And he's never even SEEN a Grimm in his life.'

This situation was growing ever more dire by the minute for him, thus; he left.

* * *

"Strong words... Not quite as strong as me, though!"

Will took a swig of his drink, then stumbled into the Cafeteria to find something to eat.

Eight Hours Later...

* * *

"I can't believe he ditched me!"

Toby ranted to a nearby initiate, who looked downright terrified.

"I mean, I'm the closest thing he has to a friend, and he just ditches me because he found his old boss!-oh wait, He's here now. And where the hell do you think you've been all day, huh? Admiring the scenery? Painting a masterpiece? Trying to build up the courage to ask Weiss? Oh hohohohoh! You-you were, weren't you?! I'm guessing you couldn't do it then?"

If you were to put how much Jasper wanted to kick Tobias' head in right then on a scale of 1-10, it would be a solid 7. Castration, however, was another matter entirely...

* * *

"... And stay out!"

Roared the cook, after tossing him from the Cafeteria, before slamming the doors closed. Wilhelm was not amused. After spending 7 1/2 hours searching for the Cafeteria, he was immediately thrown out for threatening to shoot the cook if he couldn't get a refill of his drink.

"Ha! Joke's on you: you just popped my arm into place!"

Luckily for him, he had managed to swipe something special from the cook's reserves before being thrown out: Everclear grain alcohol. As anyone who has ever imbibed Everclear will tell you, there is no wonder it made the top of the list for most potent alcohol in the world. Available in potency up to 95% alcohol by volume (190 proof), this stuff is banned from sale in Vacuo and Menagerie. However, on those continents you can buy the weaker, 151 proof variety. Short of home-distilled sour-mash moonshine, you don't legally get much stronger than Everclear. The best part? Everclear is flavorless, like good vodka is supposed to be. It is odorless as well, so it can basically be added to any drink or cocktail to give it one hell of a kick in the a#s.

Most people lack the brain damage to consider swigging this without heavily diluting the drink beforehand. Wilhelm had no such problem. Sure, he got strange looks from anyone who knew what the alcohol (mostly 2nd, 3rd and 4th years) could do to someone undiluted... But he didn't care about them; he just wanted to be drunk.

* * *

"Ugh, I can smell that guy from over here, and that drink WILL kill him if he's not cautious."

Vlad snarled in disdain at the veteran shambling drunkenly into a corner, where he abruptly passed out, Everclear in hand.

"I'll have you know Vlad, he is the 3rd deadliest person in this room, far surpassing you."

Vlad and Goodwitch raised an eyebrow.

"How?!"

"Have you heard of how Atlas chooses their soldiers?"

"Yes. They test their aim, then send the passes to one of four tribes."

Ozpin nodded.

"That boy witnessed the death of his father, friends, and allies for seven years-how many do you think he's killed?"

Vlad shrugged his shoulders.

"10?...15?"

"3728 reported casualties, though there could be more, as he has been known to immolate, eviscerate, and mutilate his enemies, often beyond recognition."

To say he was shocked would be an understatement.

"How has that drunk killed that many trained soldiers?!"

"He followed his survival instincts. That's why I want you to look out for him in the forest. You two are born survivors."

Ozpin left him, with Glynda close behind.

"Born survivors...ha!"

Vlad then crawled onto the chandelier, hung upside-down, and tried his best to go to sleep.

* * *

"Was that really necessary anyway? That hurt dude! I'm still getting phantom pains!"

Tobias complained about his harsh treatment before, but Jasper shrugged him off.

"In all fairness: you were making fun of my nervous disposition when speaking to my old friend."

Tobias' eyebrow launched into orbit and began the colonisation of his ears.

"Really? Just old friends? You had nothing going on together?"

Jasper sighed.

"No. Nothing happened."

"Really? Not even a little light over-the-clothes action?"

Jasper punched him in the face, then flopped him on top of his sleeping bag, before lying down himself. Before he could get to sleep, however, the sound of girls arguing filled his senses. Just as he was about to march over there and politely ask them to quiet down and kill each other quietly, he saw Weiss. Now that made him sit down and shut up; he knew from experience the severe case of snowballs she could provide if provoked, and decided that their reunion would be icy enough without her being angry at the time anyway.

* * *

For more information on my other projects, please await the day I stop being so... I've just lost my train of thought. Oh, wait, there it is! It's headed straight for my house... Oh shi-


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Let the games begin!

* * *

"Come on! Just one time? Please?"

Tobias begged, really beginning to get on Jasper's nerves.

"No."

"Please? Please, please, please, please, please, please-"

"No! I'm not pranking the blonde over there. Would you care to find out why?"

Tobias shrugged his shoulders, then he began stuffing his face with metric tonnes of pancakes ravenously.

"Honestly man! At least try to prove Winchester wrong!"

That made him stop.

"What'd ya mean? And be very careful with how you reply here."

"You are acting like an animal. Do you know that there are utensils beside you that could help you eat without first coating yourself in your meal?"

Tobias visibly relaxed his muscles, then went back to hoovering up pancakes in the most vile manner conceivable.

"So buddy, are ya gonna tell me why you're not gonna help me screw with that blonde bombshell?"

Tobias asked, still wolfing (no pun intended...okay, maybe a little.) down pancakes.

Jasper sighed.

"Do you, by any chance, recall the name Junior?"

Tobias choked on pancake shrapnel.

"That's her? Oh boy, I've been waiting to do this for three months now."

Before Jasper could stop him, Tobias bolted over to blondie, readying a pair of scissors he was carrying for no apparent reason. He slowed his approach to a stalking pace, readying his weapon of choice. She was currently watching a small redhead demolish the food before her three times faster than he thought physically possible; far too preoccupied to prevent this no matter what she tried.

*SNIP*

Deadly silence. Shocked stares. A sense of impending doom. Everyone in the room watched as the lock of hair floated dejectedly, as if it felt betrayed by its owner.

"Yang...please don't kill him."

Ruby begged pleadingly; it was her first day: she didn't feel like getting kicked out just yet.

"Don't worry Ruby...I'll be fine..."

Yang strained out in a sickly sweet tone. Something told Jasper Tobias would not, in fact, be fine...

"...Just as soon as I've torn his lungs out through his chest!"

Then she...exploded?

When Jasper came to, he took one look around his area, and sighed. Fire. Everywhere.

* * *

Tobias was terrified. No. You really could not even begin to comprehend just how brown his shorts were. There was a fiery woman-no, she was literally on FIRE!-chasing him with shot-gauntlets firing explosive rounds which released (yep, you guessed it!) more FIRE!

"It was just one piece! I'm sorry! I'm so, so, sorry!"

"Aww, why don't you come back here and say that TO MY FACE?! You touch my hair; I break your face!"

She wasn't gonna give up. He had to think of a way out of this-the initiation! He just had to make it to the cliffs ALIVE.

* * *

"Agghh, the sound of hangover in the morning..."

The general chatter of the people around Wilhelm was like a Dog whistle: painful and extremely annoying. Normally, with the level of drunkenness (yes, that is a word) Wilhelm had attained, you would need a breathing apparatus, and a new liver. But Wilhelm had digested much worse than Everclear before. The veteran was certainly feeling the affects of the drink, as his vision was similar to when you look in a mirror after having a shower.

"Can you quiet down?! I'm having a hangover here!"

The crowd went silent, so Wilhelm decided to go about his merry ways by shoving a Rabbit Faunus to the ground who was "obstructing his path." Now most of you are probably wondering 'Where could a drunken war veteran be headed to in a school for monster hunters?'

Well, my friends; he isn't drunk *shocked gasps* yes! I know, right?!

He actually remembered something about the initiation being held at the cliffs, and was actually on his way to the cliffs. Shocked? You should be.

* * *

Vlad had positioned himself strategically behind some bushes so that he could begin the initiation unseen. Naturally, his inborn ability to fly makes it so that he doesn't need a launch pad. Yes, he had previous knowledge of the initiation. Yes, he did spy on them as they set up the "relics" (in reality, they're just chess pieces.) Can you really blame him? He was a survivor, and he didn't care what he had to do, so long as he survived.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Ozpin began an obviously pre-rehearsed informative speech.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams'. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."

Goodwitch continued the obviously pre-rehearsed informative speech.

"What? Ohhh..."

Red moaned, clearly upset by the announcement.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

Red groaned; she didn't have many people like that.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

If this world were an anime, which it isn't, because, come on: that's just ridiculous, Ruby's world would have shattered like glass around her.

"Whaaaat?!"

Nora turned to Ren triumphantly, almost taunting him.

"See? I told you-!"

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die."

The Arc runt laughed nervously and then gulped loudly.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, um, sir?"

"Good! Now, take your positions."

Ozpin stonewalled

Everyone struck some sort of a pose on their tile. Nora crouched low, Ren revealed his weapons, Red readied her body, and Jaune was stood with his hand raised.

"Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question." (he missed the tile under Weiss rise up into a springboard, rocketing into the air and over the forest, as the platforms activated down the line) "So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?"

"No. You will be falling."

Ozpin deadpanned.

(missed more students being thrown) "Oh, uh, I see... So, did you, like, hand out parachutes for us?"

"No. You will be using your own 'landing strategy'."

The idiot still managed to miss an excited Nora and Ren get launched "Uh-huh... Yeah."

"Here I gooooooooooooo!"

Wilhelm flew away, firing Arbiter repeatedly to gain momentum.

Jasper went next, becoming a grey blur in the sky, somehow...

"So, what exactly is a landing strategYYY!..."

He asked this just as he finally got hurled with the cloud of students now making their way down into the forest below under the eyes of the teachers. Ozpin, for his part, simply takes a sip of his drink.

A thundering symphony of footsteps filled the ears of Vladimir, as a fiery blonde trailed just barely behind a terrified Wolf Faunus, who was trying his very best not to turn into a hot dog.

...

...

...

Ok, I'll admit that was terrible. We can all either forget about this, and let me carry on writing, or we can continue to make fun of me so I have to stop writing and cry. Your choice.

He saw the pads, and leapt upon one, using it to springboard himself into the air. The girl, however, was not far behind him, and launched herself off of another launch pad, firing one of her gauntlets behind her, and the other at Tobias.

"(Sigh) the coast's clear Vlad, you can come out now."

Vlad emerged from the bushes, and casually flew over to where he found the relics.

"Glynda? Why do all the awkward students come to our school?"

Glynda stared at him, eyebrow raised.

"Don't look at me: you asked them to come here."

Ozpin sighed.

"Sometimes I need to learn to shut up."

* * *

Mai Gard... I furnurshed thur churptur urn twur durys! I'm so proud of myself...granted, it is shorter, but still! I. Did. It. Ha.


	4. Chapter 4

Ok, not even joking right now. The next few sentences are actually true. I would have had this chapter up earlier, but, and this is the part where things get really crazy: my Dog, Ralphie, deleted it from my iPad. Not even joking. I had a load of chips next to me, and he tried to eat them. He's a Bulldog, so his jaw flab dragged over the delete button.

* * *

Chapter 4: A Series of Unfortunate Events...

* * *

Have you ever been in one of those situations where you feel as though you were being watched? This may sound paranoid, but Tobias had every right and couldn't care less what anyone thought of him because of it. One word justified this in his mind:

"Blondie. Yang Xiao Long to her friends, Sir to Junior, and s**t to anyone who pays her!"

Tobias taunted the tree line, honestly believing that she was nearby.

"Wait a sec, why am I not killing her again?"

_It's because you're not allowed to kill initiates, d*****s! Ozpin explicitly stated that the murder of any of his students is against the rules and as a consequence, all of your bounties will be resuscitated._

Tobias had a nasty habit of talking down to himself. It's just one of the side effects of being a total douche to anyone and everyone; that particular habit had just gotten him into a possibly life threatening situation. Screwing with Xiao Long was possibly the worst idea he'd ever had.

"How has she not found me yet?! I know she's blonde, but I honestly didn't expect her to be that much of a ditzy b***h! She did have the brains to f**k herself into Beacon Academy, after all!"

No response came from the tree line; no fiery blonde rushed out to pummel him.

"Huh...I guess she's not that good a Huntress after all-I mean first she can't hit a moving target, now she can't even find her target! The worst part?! Her target's wailing like her on Saturday nights, and she STILL can't find me!-"

While he was busy taunting an enemy that wasn't there, he failed to notice the Ursa Minor that snuck up on him, then he failed to notice him as it cast a shadow over him, finally, when the beast swooped in for the kill, it met no resistance, and got a single, solid strike upon him. Tobias fell, rolled across the floor, then hit a tree.

"Son of a b***h!-oh, wait, it's not bimbo. Any who, I still get to kill something!"

Tobias stabbed his claymore deep into the shoulder, eliciting a roar in response. He stepped inside its guard, forcing his blade deeper within the beast, then began to pummel it, slowly, but surely breaking each of its ribs, then began to damage the organs within; he didn't stop until the beast stopped struggling. When it finally gave in, he threw it from his sword, then cleaned his blade of its red ooze. While he was doing this, however, the dead Ursa's mate came back for revenge, only to be beheaded in a single slash.

The blade, however, was not a claymore, it was, in fact, a cleaver.

"Fancy finding you out here."

Tobias leapt back in surprise, wildly swinging his sword in the direction of the noise.

"I'm delighted to know Miss. Xiao Long didn't beat you to a bloody pulp, then."

"Oh yeah? I'm glad to know you haven't stopped being a sardonic p***k!"

Jasper merely scoffed at his friend's comeback.

"I'd like to point out that you didn't deny that she would have beaten you into a bloody pulp if you had fought."

Tobias smirked. His comeback was harsh, and pushed all the right buttons.

"Oh really?"

He asked, in a sickly sweet tone.

"**I'd** like to point out that you can't work up the courage to ask out Weiss. Do you think she'd mind me being ex-White Fang?"

Jasper didn't reply...for a while.

"Ok, Tobias: do you want me to trust you?"

"You didn't before? I'm hurt."

He gasped in mock-hurt, but his eyebrow was raised, and a smirk adorned his face.

"No, Tobias, I didn't. In our old line of work, trust was like the Boogeyman: you feared it, but it didn't exist in the first place. Now, however, we're partners, and I'm about to tell you something I've never told anyone else before."

He paused-for dramatic effect, of course-but Tobias got impatient and butted in.

"Well? Any f*****g time now, sweetheart!"

Jasper groaned in indignation.

"You had to ruin the moment, didn't you? Anyway, I'm...a Grimm worshipper."

* * *

"Woooo-hoooooo! I'm a little birdy, flappin' my wings, everybody dreads, the day the Bird sings!-"

Wilhelm slammed into a tree at high velocity, breaking several bones.

"Agh, son of a b***h! Who puts a tree in a...forest? Who put thus here?! What the hell?!"

He hauled himself up off the ground at a painstakingly slow pace, before falling over again.

_So_. He thought. _This is how it ends... _

* * *

Vlad saw his destination: _The Temple..._

However, he heard something, an erratic combination of painful breaths. He stopped in midair for a moment, and focused on those breaths. It was then that he saw him: Wilhelm Douglas. It was apparent to Vlad that Wilhelm wouldn't make it, he probably knew it himself. Vladimir prepared to carry on flying to The Temple, when he realised: his Aura hadn't been activated.

"He could still make it...but if I help him, he'll be my teammate. No! I. Made. A promise. I'm not gonna watch another I could save die..."

Vlad dive bombed towards Wilhelm, reaching his terminal velocity, as he rushed to save the man he would soon call:"partner"

* * *

Wilhelm's vision began to blue, as the little light that broke through the thick shrubbery began to fade away. He knew he was going to die, he simply hated the fact that he would have to face the men, women and children he had killed. That was the one thing preventing him from offing himself: he would have to face his Demons in Hell. He could've swore he could see one of them there, floating down to drag him to the pit he belonged in. When it reached him, it didn't carry him away, it simply began chanting words that were gibberish at first, but he began to understand it as he tried to focus on it.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."

Wilhelm felt something burn within him-for once, it didn't hurt. The broken bones clicked back together like Lego pieces, his torn muscles wove back together. All in all, he felt seventeen, as opposed to seventy-two. There was only one problem, though: he couldn't focus!

"Hey there, you ok?"

Wilhelm's vision slowly came into focus as he strained his eyes, and once he could see straight, he wished he couldn't.

"A-are you a D-d-demon?"

He asked, slowly crawling away from him.

"No."

It flashed a malicious toothy grin.

"I'm your partner."

* * *

"Are you actually s******g me?! You drop a bombshell like that, then you just walk away, silent?! Do you have any clue what this means?!-"

Jasper shut him up with a 180° spin, followed by a jab to the throat.

"Yes, Tobias, I do. It means I get a whole plethora of abilities at the expense of some of my Aura per ability."

That got him thinking.

"How many powers do you have?"

He didn't answer, so Toby swung for him, only to land flat on his face. _Hologram..._

_"_Four as of Yesterday."

"What are they?"

Jasper growled in discontent.

"I'm not entirely comfortable about disclosing further information to you, Tobias. I don't know where things stand between us."

Toby sighed.

"Jas, I'm sorry. It's just I...I overreacted. I wasn't prepared for that. Honestly? I was expecting you to admit you have feelings for Weiss, then you dropped that bombshell on me and walked off!"

Jas groaned.

"Really. You can't go one sentence without making some snide jab at me and my former employer's daughter?!"

Toby didn't care about that. It just came naturally to him. He did, however, want to know what sort of powers he had.

"I can tell that you won't cease pestering me until I tell you what you want to know, so I'll let you know. I can turn invisible and leave a holographic decoy in my place. I can create a negative affect on people's minds, making them angry or sad. I can see corrupt people's thoughts. And finally, I can command a single Beowolf at a time to do my bidding. Unfortunately, this has reduced my Aura capacity to dangerously low levels, and my eyes have tinted red slightly, as opposed to their usual green."

Tobias' jaw hit the floor. It left a bruise. This was a direct result of a haymaker-courtesy of Yang Xiao Long.

"Hey, bad boy...did ya miss me?"

* * *

"You alright to travel yet?"

Vlad asked, getting impatient.

"I don't know: ever since you unlocked my Aura, I've felt really, really nauseous and I can't shake the feeling that that's a bad thing."

That gave Vlad a reason to be concerned.

"Ok, but we have to move now...hold still."

Wilhelm'ssevere case of confusion was cured by Vlad, who grabbed him with both of his feet, then began to fly towards The Temple.

* * *

"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together!"

Yang remarks cheerily.

"Not if I can help it!"

Ruby States with admirable amounts of bravery, determination and...stupidity.

"Ruby, wait!"

Ruby, who was still screaming the least intimidating battle cry ever. Of all time, fired Crescent Rose and charged the oncoming Death Stalker. When the two met, the Grimm swept Ruby away and knocked her back_._

"Well...she's dead. Let's go Jasper-oh, for god's sake! He ditched me again!"

"I haven't ditched you, my friend. I'm just not visible. Weiss is here. Help me save Ruby."

Tobias didn't get a turn to debate; he had to rescue Ruby.

Ruby got up slowly, obviously disoriented by the impact_._

"D-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!"

Ruby turned back to the monster and shot it in the skull, before running away from it and sheathing her scythe as the Death Stalker ran after her.

Yang ran forward, but was obviously not going to reach her sister.

"Ruby!"

Ruby rushed to Yang, but the Nevermore cawed above them, flapped its wings and released lines of sharpened feathers with points that caught on Ruby's cape and prevented Yang from reaching her.

"Ruby, get out of there!"

Ruby struggled with the cloak futilely.

"I'm trying!"

The Death Stalker approached, raised its golden stinger above a scared Ruby and shot down at the helpless girl.

Yang was reaching her arm out in vain, trying to grab her sister, who was too far for anyone who didn't possess telekinesis to reach.

"Ruby!"

*CRACK!*

A fist slammed into the stinger, knocking it into the path of an ice shockwave, freezing it.

"You are **so** childish!"

Weiss scolded_._

"Weiss...?"

"_And_ dim-witted, _and_ hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style. And I suppose I can be a bit... _difficult_... but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if _you_ quit trying to show off, I'll be... _nicer_."

"I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this."

"You're fine_-"_

_*CHOP*_

The DeathStalker screeched in agony, as its claw landed with a thud.

"You, however, might not have been. I thought I taught you to look out for cheap-shots?"

Weiss' eyes resembled dinner plates. She got up off the floor, dusted herself down, and slapped him across the face.

"Ow. That hurt, Weiss. Have you been training? I thought you said you'd only train if I was teaching you-"

Another slap silenced him. Weiss leaned in, a scowl plastered upon her face.

"Where **were** you? Where have you been?"

Jasper opened his mouth to speak, but received yet another slap.

"I don't wanna hear it. You left me."

"I did not-"

*SLAP*

"You **kicked** me out of a **window!"**

**"I **removed** you **from harm's way."

"I wasn't in harm's way!-"

"Is that what you think, or is that what your father told you to think?"

Yang rushed up to Ruby and enveloped her in a hug nearly as lethal as the stinger that threatened her life moments ago.

"So happy you're okay!"

The two stared at each other for a moment, then stared up at the Nevermore that was still flying overhead.

"Guys? That thing's circling back! What are we gonna do?"

Jaune whimpered, proving he wasn't cut out for that s**t

Weiss left Jasper stood staring at the bushes.

"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us."

"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs."

She nodded at Weiss.

"There's no point in fighting these things."

"Run and live - that's an idea I can get behind!"

Ruby ran over and grabbed a gold knight (identical to the one Yang picked out)and Jaune took hold of a gold rook (similar to Nora and Ren's piece), smiling at each other. The Death Stalker continued to fight its bonds, cracking the ice a little in the process.

Ren noticed this, and immediately informed the others.

"Time we left!"

"Right."

Ruby waved to Jasper and Tobias.

"Let's go!"

_She ran forward with everyone following except for Jasper and Tobias._

Blake, however, noticed this, and called out to them.

"What is it?"

Everyone else turned to them, who had their weapons drawn.

"IIIIINNNNNNNCOMINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!?"

Wilhelm crashed down in front of the two hitmen, and Jasper trained Kishock on his head.

"Easy soldier, hold your fire. I'm not gonna eat ya...unless ya taste like Ursa."

Eyebrows raised.

"Oh, god dammit! There are people! Ok...here we go. Time to make new friends."

For the second time today, Vladimir Rosenkov dive bombed Wilhelm's position, landing in a crouch behind him.

"What in the name of Grimm is that?!"

"Gee, thanks, a*****e!"

Vlad snapped, making Jasper lower his weapon.

"How polite, Tobias. I'll have you know you are stood before two of the most dangerous men alive-most likely surpassing us. Wilhelm Douglas, and Vladimir Rosenkov."

"Well done: you know our names. In case you haven't noticed, we have a hoard of various Grimm closing in on our position. They will arrive in less than a minute, and we won't make it to the Cliffs in time...unless we stay behind and give them time to escape."

Wilhelm and Tobias were furious.

"Wait, wait, wait! Why are we dying for people we don't care about?!"

They both asked simultaneously.

"Because I can see it in our Auras: we are bad people; the scum of Remnant. Most of them are innocent. Most."

Vlad countered.

All four of them knew that they were likely to die...but then again: that's a requirement for any of their missions...

* * *

Cliff hanger because I got bored. And that was the fifth time I'd wrote this chapter. That and I'm tired.


	5. Chapter 5

So...I've been pumping out chapters faster than previously anticipated. Good for me. Now: for the reason you're all here.

* * *

Chapter 5: The Showdown...

* * *

"So uh...how're we gonna do this?"

Vlad asks, a little nervous about facing off with a Grimm horde. One on one? No problem. One on four? Easy. Hell-even a hundred to one he could manage. But it seems like there are at least 400 D-Class Grimm. With the occasional C-Class thrown in to sweeten the pot.

"Alright: me and Jas'll attack them head on. Vampy: you take captain cripple up in the air while he shoots the C-Classes. Go!"

Tobias commanded them to do his bidding, and the strangest of things occurred: none of them moaned about their nicknames, none of them called him a douche, they just did what he told them to. He could get used to this...

"Tobias. Are you seriously not following your own commands? Get over here!"

Jasper's call snapped him out of his trance, and he raised his claymore, ready to kill. Jasper crouched low, leg spread wide. He held Metzger before him upside-down in his hand, which was tilted horizontally. His tonfa was grasped firmly in his right hand behind him. Vlad took off with Wilhelm in his grasp, who held Arbiter firmly. Wilhelm had a maniacal grin plastered upon his scarred face, whereas Vlad's only display of emotion was found in his eyes; a look only describable as hunger.

"On my mark, we go. Sync?"

"Sync"

"Sync"

"Automatic dishwasher."

...

"Goddamn it, captain cripple! Go!"

It turns out Jasper was already upon the enemy, he was simply biding his time. He spun a 360° turn, cleaving a dozen Beowolves in half with Metzger. An Ursa attempted to maul him, but he simply ducked, planting his tonfa firmly within the confinements of its bond mate's kneecap. The aforementioned Ursa's paws tumbled to the ground, courtesy of the mighty Wolf Faunus Tobias, who then sheathed his beloved claymore, and began using the Ursa's paws as weapons, mauling any Grimm foolish enough to go near him. During this time, however, he was being protected by Wilhelm, who sniped an Arachne just as it was about to cripple him. Three Ursi fell with face-sized holes in their heads; a direct result of a hyper velocity .50 cal tungsten FMJ round fired at approximately 1,400kph directly through the faceplate. While he never missed a shot, the negative effects his Aura had on him was slowing his effective fire rate down drastically. Vlad, in the meantime, was calling out high value targets to the-now incredibly drunk-team's sniper, who was killing a Grimm every three seconds. Jasper and Tobias used their knowledge of each other's fighting styles to great effect. Tobias still wore the paws, but he also held his claymore. He was butchering them: they had no tactics; there were too many of them to do anything other than rush. Jasper was a whirlwind, attacking anything that dared to strike out at Tobias. They switched roles when Tobias took a step backwards, swinging his claymore in a wide arc. Jasper leapt over the blade-which killed the Grimm about to pounce on him from behind-performed a somersault midair, then split a Boarbatusk in two. This attack variation continued for three hours, all of them doing their part to end their foes-or at least as many of them as they could. When the last enemy fell, none of them could believe it. Jasper and Tobias were covered in bruises and scratches, their Auras failed them long ago. Vlad had been hauling Wilhelm around for three hours. Wilhelm's allergy to his own Aura was his downfall, as he strained himself too hard when he attempted to concentrate on the enemies through both the Aura disruption, and the Everclear.

"We deserve medals, in my opinion."

Tobias panted out.

"Cookies, too, I hope."

Jasper remarked sarcastically.

"There better be more...more...more Evergreen. No, that's not it..."

Wilhelm babbled exhaustedly.

They turned to Vlad, who merely grumbled.

"I'm good. I just wanna sleep."

* * *

There were no paramedics, or rescue crews. They had to scale the Cliffs. Or, in their language: get Vlad to fly you up, endangering all of their lives. He couldn't carry them all at once, so they went one at a time, lightening the load for Vlad. When they finally reached the top, it seemed the ceremony had already ended. In fact, it looked like they were having a funeral.

"Damn. I think they think we're dead."

Blank stares.

"You don't say, CC."

They all limped through the courtyard, and then shoved themselves through the crowds who pretended they knew them to look sad. As a matter of fact: there were only really two people in the whole Academy who had any business there. One was called Weiss Schnee, the other: Cardin Winchester. The only reason he had any reason to be there's because he'd want to dance on their graves. Obviously, that meant he'd have to sit through the whole ceremony so everyone else would leave.

"Um..hello?! Mr. Ozpin, sir? Mind filling us in on why we have caskets out here with our names on it? I personally don't feel very dead. I feel in pain. I'm hurt."

Everyone in the room went silent for a moment. Some of them snickered at them, about how they'd nearly died, and everybody else had made it out relatively unscathed. Others felt bad for them; they're generally from the small group of people we saved taking this social bullet to the crotch. A small minority didn't care, and left as soon as they found out we weren't actually dead.

"Ah, you made it. I apologise for presuming you were dead. I trust you can see how we would come to this conclusion-"

"No! This is a disgrace! This is Beacon Academy. **Beacon Academy! **This is the best damn Hunting school in the world! You'd think you'd've been able to afford some basic emergency staff members. My unit was better supplied while I was running with the Praetorians! The worst part? They didn't care whether I lived or died. The fact you supposedly do and can't even afford to purchase basic emergency rescue equipment is disgusting."

Wilhelm raged, but what he said wasn't what hit home for Ozpin: it was how he said it. He had sobered up and focused. The whole time he was being observed he was showing severe problems with bonding with his Aura.

"I'm sorry about that, but seeing as how you're all still here, I'd like to properly conclude the initiation ceremony. Follow me, if you would."

The four murderers followed the man up to the Auditorium's stage, where they stood, publicly; visible through the naked eye.

"Tobias Carven, Vladimir Rosenkov, Wilhelm Douglas, and Jasper Whitehall. You four have retrieved the Black Bishop pieces. And from now on you will be known as Team CRDW. Lead by: Tobias Carven."

The aforementioned Toby choked on air.

"**WHAT?! **Why am I leading a team? Pick Jasper, he's smart! Or Vlad! He's calculating. Hell-pick Wilhelm! He has military experience! Anyone but me!"

* * *

"Don't you think that was a little...conspicuous?"

Roman Torchwick asked cautiously. He knew exactly what he was dealing with, and didn't like his survival odds.

"Doesn't matter. We got the Dust, and I had fun. Win-win."

Roman considered himself lucky: Silas was only violent if threatened...or unchained.

"You burned down a Dust store and crucified the owner on the door frame."

A sadistic chuckle and a shrug of the shoulders. That was how Silas responded to torture.

"He was religious. I martyred him."

Roman facepalmed.

"That doesn't matter. We still need more Dust and we're running out of options. If Cinder finds out-"

"Miss. Fall will not be an issue. Once she realised just what she's dealing with, then she'll give you more breathing room, Torchwick."

* * *

Done!...Again! Whoo...I'm so tired. It's only 8pm. I hate my life. That's why I write. To escape the harsh reality that I will never be able to eat cookies like Ruby, or make a gun-blade (my personal choice would be a pair of sickles that combine into a four-pronged flamethrower glaive.


	6. Chapter 6

First off: I would really like to apologise for not putting the meaning for team CRDW in the previous chapter, so I'll try and put it in as many times as possible so you can remember it.

* * *

Chapter 6: **_Team Cardio_**...

* * *

The members of **_Team Cardio_**: Jasper Whitehall, Wilhelm Douglas, Vladimir Rosenkov, and their fearless leader: Tobias Carven. These four men were a few of the most lethal in their respective lines of work. Jasper was an ex-bodyguard to Weiss Schnee turned assassin after her father betrayed him. He was also a Grimm worshipper; a fact that only one other member was aware of. Speaking of the fearless leader (with the exception of Yang and long-winded essays or reports) of **_Team Cardio:_** Tobias Carven. He met Jasper on his last mission as a White Fang hitman, and after they fought, both quit their former jobs to work as soldiers of fortune. Jasper went down the stealthy takedown/political assassination route, whereas Tobias worked to eliminate entire mercenary groups at a time. He was debating with Jasper whether or not to tell the rest of **_Team Cardio_** about Jasper's "religion." The two remaining members of **_Team Cardio_** were still asleep, one sprawled across the floor, too drunk to move, the other hung from the ceiling. Wilhelm Douglas was the man on the ground with an empty bottle of Everclear in his hand. The ex-Praetorian famous for his record-setting kill count of 3728, not including the Grimm he butchered during the initiation. He is a carrier of every war-induced mental illness on the planet-though some may be minor symptoms. Finally, we introduce the last member of Team Cardio: Vladimir Rosenkov. A rare breed of Faunus that literally sucked the life out of all those close to him. He quit the serial killer scene as soon as he got a chance-a chance provided by none other than Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

"If you don't tell them, and they find out-"

"The same could be said about your White Fang career."

"-These guys have just as bloody a background as us, they wont wanna know anything other than how many cans of whoop-a*s you can open up on our enemies!"

"Very well, then: I'll tell them if you tell them."

They shook hands and woke them up.

"Rise and shine d**k biscuits! I have a special announcement to make!"

Tobias kicked Wilhelm in the balls-eliciting an abnormally high-pitched shriek of agony. Jasper chose a safer route, choosing to simply use an air horn to exploit his sensitive hearing.

"Aghh! Why?! Why do this?!"

Vlad dropped to the floor, head first.

"We did this, Mr. Rosenkov, because we have an announcement to make. Well, Tobias first."

He stared at his friend, who sighed, and nodded.

"Alright guys, I'm ex-White Fang."

Silence followed.

"I don't care."

Toby did a double-take.

"What?"

Wilhelm got up, and looked him straight in the eye.

"Atlas makes you do much, much worse than that, Carven. I'm fine with it."

Vlad shrugged his shoulders.

"Do you kick as much a*s as you did back then?"

"Well, I don't mean to blow my own horn-not in any kind of gay way-I like to think I'm better than I was then-"

Vlad patted him on the shoulder with his right wing.

"That's good enough for me."

"Well, now that's done with, I'd like to tell you my secret."

They both leaned in. Jasper spoke.

"I'm a Grimm worshipper. Now I don't know how you feel about this, but at least let me tell you why."

They were bothe silent, but the grin on Vlad's face told him he knew something about what this meant.

"I got a contract one night from this guy saying he had a payment like none other if I completed one contract for him. I accepted. It said I had to assassinate a general in Atlas who was trying to allow Faunus into The Immortals. After the job was done, I met with some guy, and let me tell you: he was colossal! I'd say about seven foot eight. And his right arm was the same size as my chest!"

That brought forth more than a few snickers from the more immature members of **Team Cardio** (Tobias and Wilhelm, for those who didn't know.)

"Ha, ha, ha. How mature. Anyway, he handed me this."

Jasper showed them his cleaver, Metzger, or more specifically, the handle.

"A Fate Timer, one of four in existence. It collects corrupt souls from the dead. It also provides a direct link to Grimm. I asked him for power, and power he did deliver. I replaced my Semblance, and my holographic projector with a variety of powers. Though there is one downside to this: each power takes a chunk of my Aura away."

"Dude...where do I get me one of those? Ever since I got this Aura offa Vlad, I've sucked in combat, in taking drinks, in fact, I'd prefer to just eliminate my Aura; it's caused nothing but more problems."

He moves to swig some Everclear, but finds the bottle empty. He looked like he was gonna cry.

"I'll be honest with you: I already knew about you being a Grimm worshipper. The red tint in your eyes gave it away. While the powers are worth it, there is the possibility of you becoming like Kalvin from The Walking Dead."

Wilhelm straight up laughed at him.

"Really? You're calling up old fairy tales to deny the bada*sness that is the Fate Timer?"

Jasper raised an eyebrow.

"I thank you for your concern, but I assure you I have taken all the rumours and speculation into account, and I'm debating whether or not to stop collecting new abilities. But enough about me, me and Tobias have been thinking, and we've decided between us that he isn't fit to be a leader."

The two boys were stunned: they weren't expecting anything like that.

"Wait a second. You're telling me, that Tobias Carven, the only man ever to backchat Professor Ozpin, has admitted one of his own faults? That he can't handle leading _Team Cardio_?"

Vlad asked skeptically, not believing Tobias honestly thought he couldn't do it.

"Well, it's not that I **can't** do it, or I don't enjoy doing it. It's more like I'm too lazy to fill out all the paperwork I need to do."

Vlad burst out laughing, as did Jasper.

"There it is! I knew you'd come up with some pathetic excuse! I just...knew it!"

Vlad wiped a tear from his scrunched up eyelid.

"Anyway, I've worked up an appetite over the past week, I'm gonna go feed."

That made Wilhelm choke on the "water" he'd gone to fetch from their fridge.

"Wait, wait, wait! Don't you eat people? Try and make sure it's Winchester you eat, or any one of his guys."

Vlad laughed, glad he wasn't actually going to lecture him about his eating habits.

"Who have you eaten so far?"

"Edgar."

"What the hell, man?! Wait...who's Edgar?"

"Edgar is a Cow I keep in the basement of Beacon Academy. There's a whole farm of them down there."

Jasper furrowed his brow in confusion.

"How is Edgar not dead?"

A malicious smile spread his lips wide, revealing his fangs.

"No, no. You don't understand, Jasper: Edgar is the one in the Hole."

And on that note, Vlad left through the Dorm window, crawling down the side of the building.

"Hey, uh...don't you have a match with Weiss today?"

Wilhelm asked, breaking the silence with a fight Jasper feared much more than **Team Cardio**'s tussle with a Grimm horde. That fight left them in the Medical Ward for their first week of school; somewhere they never wanted to have to eat lunch again. Just thinking about that...slop made them want to vomit.

"Oh...s**t!"

Jasper threw on his jacket and boots haphazardly, then rushed out the door to the Arena.

* * *

The Arena was a recently added section of the school, as they were previously forced to use the Auditorium's stage for sparring. Now, though, they had a Romanesque Colosseum to fight in, giving them more room, and a great view for any spectators.

"Hello, class, and welcome to Combat Training."

Professor Goodwitch began.

"Today, we have a new member of our group: Jasper Whitehall of **Team Cardio**. "

Jasper stepped forth and gave a curt nod of his head, standing at his full height instead of slouching as he usually did.

"He has agreed to take part in the demonstration for our lesson today. Today's objective is to understand the importance of deception in combat."

Jasper smirked: _that, I can do._

"He shall be facing Weiss Schnee, and they will demonstrate their ideas of , if you would, please take to the Arena floor. Everyone else will take notes on their fighting styles and how they have incorporated deception into their fighting styles."

Jasper smirked at Weiss, who kept her facade up for everyone else. _She can be deceptive when she wants to be, they all think her a heartless wench. I know she's much more than that. She may be able to fool them, but she'll never fool me. I know her too well. However, she knows nothing about me.  
_

Weiss took the stairs down, and Jasper did the same, or so everyone thought. Weiss reached the bottom first, Myrtenaster drawn. When she looked over to Jasper on the staircase, her facade almost slipped.

"I didn't think you'd fall for that."

Weiss spun around, readying her stance, a stance he taught her.

"I also didn't think you'd use that stance."

"I guess that means I have an advantage."

Weiss lunged, using her glyph to speed forwards, preparing to impale her former protector. _Any second now, he'll deactivate his hologram and attack from the sides. Ready, and-_

_*_Smack!_*_

A powerful backhand sent her reeling, confused, discombobulated, and irate. He hadn't used his decoy at all. She thought he'd do it, but he didn't.

"Surprised? You should be-"

She spun around, slashing his chest. He had tried to sneak up on her as his decoy diverted her focus elsewhere.

"Not at all, Jasper."

Jasper feigned an overhead chop with Metzger, making her sidestep into a tonfa. Her revenge was swift, however, as she quickly retaliated with a Dust attack, **however**, she had re-chambered all of her Dust in tinted plastic casing. He dodged a fire strike, only to be frozen. _Red is Freeze Dust..._

She switched to yellow, and shot out Gravity Dust shards, letting him know White was Energy Dust. She had revealed her ace far too early. Jasper crouched into the stance he used during the initiation. She charged him, and they became a light grey blur, slashing and stabbing at each other, however, Weiss was getting more and more flustered as the brawl continued. This was because every slash she sent his way, every Dust spell, went clean through a hologram and she received a punch to the back of the head, dazing her long enough for him to perform a flip-kick to the side of her face. The bruised girl dug herself out of the Colosseum wall, shook her head, and charged... Directly into the invisible foot of Jasper Whitehall.

"Enough! As you can see: Weiss' Aura has dropped into the red, in any tournament-style matchup, this would indicate she is unfit for battle, and would be eliminated. Now: I would like each of you to describe how they implemented the concept of deceiving your enemy..."

* * *

"Hey, Edgar. Feeding time."

Vlad clamped his jaws around his throat, draining him in about forty-five seconds. The dying groans of the beast would have broken his heart ten years ago. Not now. He'd killed too many people to care about anyone in his little flock. The growth rate surpassed the rate at which he killed them, and thus he could release his feral side down here without fear of being shunned or interrupted. Once he had disposed of and replaced Edgar, he went straight to his first lesson: Grimm Studies...

* * *

Actually turning up to this lesson was a waste. He didn't need to know any of this. His attack strategy was to scare them into a docile state, then pick them off one by one. He didn't need to know how to kill them quickly because there have only been two people who had ever fought back: both of them were dead. He didn't care about Port reminiscing about his wasted youth. The only interesting part of the lesson was when he got to fight an Ursa to implement what I'd just learned. _Did you know, the Ursa's weak point is a small patch of _**thin hide**_ around where the _**ear**_ would be on a Bear? Neither did I. Do I care? Of course not._

The Ursa charged him, swinging its giant paw like a thug would a baseball bat: slowly and pathetically, as if it knew it was dead already. He grabbed the paw with his left hand, spinning around and ducking under it, detaching the whole arm from its socket. Vlad scaled the beast from behind, and plunged one of his stalagmites into the thin hide, cutting straight through to the brain, destroying the mountain with one surgical strike.

"Bravo, my boy! You truly are a Huntsman in the making."

"Hmph. That wasn't exactly difficult."

That actually shut him up for a second.

"Excuse me?"

Vlad grinned, unnerving the students, and the professor.

"In case you hadn't heard: **_Team Cardio_** eliminated a Grimm horde last week, consisting of a variety of D and C-Class Grimm. I never understood why people feared Grimm until then. Alone they are pushovers, but in a horde? Their weakest classes could beat down even the most lethal of Hunters in a matter of hours. Do you want to know how we survived the horde? We ignored anything we'd ever been taught and followed our instincts. That's one thing me and the Grimm have in common. Normal Hunters would've died because they'd've put too much faith in your one-on-one training on how to take out a lone Ursa, or Boarbatusk, or even a Beowolf! Ursi travel in pairs, Boarbatusks move in fours, and Beowolves move in packs of 10-40 members! So anything you learn here is good on paper, but worthless in combat."

Vlad's words seemed to unnerve the fat man.

"Class...dismissed."

Vlad was already long gone.

* * *

Wilhelm was asleep. He relived past battles, the roar of the gunfire, the systematic symphony of suicidal screams of the soldiers sacrificing their souls for the citizens of their ungrateful countries. Charging them with "war crimes." The biggest joke ever. Of all time. In a fight, anything goes. You can't blame a man for using White Phosphorus to clear out an outpost because they don't have the men to do so conventionally. You can't blame a man if he tortures the location of a nuclear launch facility-saving millions of innocents-out of an enemy. Granted, Wilhelm hadn't done any of these things. They were just examples from the past.

And then he woke up.

"Mr. Douglas! What. Is. The answer?"

Professor Oobleck asked frantically, as if the information mattered. History was pointless. There would always be one a*****e who would ignore the Holocaust, and butcher an ethnic or religious group because he could. There would be no changing that. Ever.

"Atlas stormed Dragon Keep with the stolen Vytal weaponry, then used their superior infantry and numbers to massacre the Vytal forces."

Wilhelm droned unconvincingly.

"Mr. Douglas, would you mind explaining the sarcastic attitude?"

Wilhelm nodded angrily.

"Alright, Bart. I'll tell you why: none of this happened."

Oobleck breathed sharply through his nose.

"Hmm, yes. But do you have the evidence to back up your claims?"

"Oh, Oobs, he's got more than mere evidence. He's got an eyewitness report!"

Oobleck raised an eyebrow in the direction of Wilhelm, as did Pyrrha Nikos, and Cardin Winchester. Jaune Arc, on the other hand, was soundly asleep. Blake was reading, as usual. Tobias took a swig of a special drink Wilhelm gave him.

"Let's just say I'm known as The Butcher of Dragon Keep."

Jaws dropped. Tobias opened a bag of popcorn. Blake put her book down.

"My total kill count that day rose from 1337 to 2000-that's a 663 increase for those who don't know how to count. Our tactics were a mess. The generals had been assassinated the night before, so my friend Jacob had to take over. Good soldier, but he wasn't ready to lead an army of 20,000 Atlas warriors. He decided that it would be best for the Berserkers to charge through a minefield to make way for the Immortals to infiltrate the compound by scaling the walls. Once they opened the doors, The Praetorians and The Spartans would charge in and beat them into submission. That obviously didn't go according to plan, because I had to leave our only artillery unit to help the infantry not die. And, well, people died. Including Jacob and anyone I'd ever considered a friend."

By the end of his monologue, Wilhelm had spaced out, reliving the events of that day.

"I see. See me again after class: I would like your help in writing a proper account of what happened that day. The rest of you, class dismissed."

"Tobias! Can you wait for a second?"

Pyrrha called out to him, waving her arms, desperately trying to get his attention.

"Sure thing, Nikos."

And so he waited exactly one second before continuing to walk.

"Very funny, Carven."

Tobias stopped dead in his tracks. He knew that voice all too well.

"Blake? That you? My god, it **is** you!"

Tobias went in to hug her, but she sidestepped.

"What are you doing?"

Blake demanded, seemingly uncomfortable with how Tobias greets people.

"Just sayin' hello to an old friend. Why? Is there a problem?"

Tobias flashed a toothy grin, annoying Blake to no end.

"We just wanted to know if Wilhelm will be okay. He seemed very upset."

Pyrrha cut in, wanting to keep the conversation both friendly and avoid going in circles.

"That b*****d? He'll be fine. I think. If he isn't; we'll all know. He'll be screaming something about how _they're out to get me! _Or he'll be killing people. Or both. Both may occur. It was nice of him to share though. They made him do some pretty f****d up s**t."

The girls were appalled by the prevailence of apathy in his tone. They thought he'd've cared about him a little bit. But it appeared he didn't.

"Well, thanks anyway."

Pyrrha turned to leave, but Blake stood there, scowling.

"Are you...mad at me?"

Tobias asked, finally sending her over the edge.

"Am I mad at you?! You're nearly as bad as Adam!"

Tobias gasped in mock-horror.

"How **dare** you? I'm much worse than Adam."

Blake growled.

"Whoa, easy there, pussy cat! Let me explain. Adam cared about you. I don't. Adam cared a little about his teammates. I don't. In fact, I've already got the next year of nefarious scheming planned out. The best part? None of them will even notice until it's too late."

"I think you undervalue the intelligence of your team."

Blake turned to walk away, but still caught Tobias' last words.

"Yeah? Tell that to Wilhelm! He drink undiluted Everclear!"

As soon as Blake left, Toby's scroll pinged. He looked at the name, and hastily flipped it open.

"Yello? Hey, Mr. S! How we doin'? Good? Good. What do you want?"

"Tobias: I will eat your eyelids and leave you before a fan for two hours. Then I'll collect you, gouge out your eyeballs, and pour vinegar into your skull. Shut up."

Tobias didn't reply.

"Is the plan underway?"

Toby chuckled.

"They won't even realise it's happening."

"Excellant work, Tobias. I might not kill you."

As soon as Silas hung up, Toby released a breath he didn't know he'd held.

"That guy's scary."

With that, he trudged back to his room, hoping he did good enough to avoid his boss' blacklist.

* * *

And it's done! Please don't hate me it's my mother's fault she made me do it I'm so sorry for taking so long it won't happen again I promise!

Anyway. I'm pretty sure my goals for this chapter were completed.

1. Let you know what CRDW meant.

2. Let you know just how much of a d**kbiscuit Tobias is.

3. Let you know just how pointless both Grimm Studies and History lessons really are.

_"There's a fine line between not listening and not caring. I like to think I walk that line every day of my life."_

**-Leonard Church**


	7. Chapter 7

I need to learn how to save documents. This is attempt five. Yeah. The reason it's been a few days now is because I got a little bored and I wanted to play with my friends on my Xbox One.** IS THAT SO WRONG?! CAN A 14YR OLD BOY NOT HAVE FUN EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE?! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!** Don't try and pretend you're not upset I haven't been pumping these out daily. I know you are. So I'm gonna stop apologising about taking too long to upload chapters.

I'm sorry baby...I didn't mean it.

* * *

Chapter 7: An Introduction to Warfare

* * *

"So, Mr. Douglas. Would you be willing to share your knowledge of the Atlas Military System?"

Oobleck asked, taking a quick sip from his coffee after he finished speaking. Oobleck scanned his appearance, and didn't understand how he didn't notice before. He had torn up his uniform in a manner resembling his previous attire, but he still wore the cloth over his eye.

"What do **you **know first? I don't wanna sit here repeating stuff you already know."

Oobleck sighed.

"I know how the Praetorians recruit members. With a mandatory combat test at 10."

Wilhelm raised an eyebrow, smiled, then burst out laughing.

"R-really? You don't, you don't know any-anything other than a brief synopsis of my tribe's recruitment process? And you call yourself a teacher!"

Oobleck shook his head discontentedly.

"I am a History teacher. I teach History, not Health & Social. Please continue."

One quick sip of his coffee later, he was ready to listen; hands clasped, elbows on the table.

"Alright..."

Wilhelm prepared himself by clearing his throat, then took a deep breath.

"Atlas has always been a militant Kingdom. We have to, in order to survive. The Deserts are teaming with DeathStalker and King Taijitu hives, and Atlas is a desert. No, I'm being serious, there's like, one rainforest to the most westerly point of the Kingdom. And that's full of all the other Grimm. Particularly the Arachne and Beowolves. Anyway, it eventually got so bad, we needed to stop only accepting volunteered soldiers from the civilian population. So The Praetorians were formed. Their motto? Victory; no matter the cost. With this new formation, there came a law. Every family must choose a weapon type. Then every child who turns 10 must try to use that weapon. If they show potential, they are sent to The Praetorians for further training. If the family cannot afford a weapon to use, they are given a standard issue outfit of armour plating of either iron or bronze, a rectangular shield, a gladius, and a bundle of pila stored in the shield. The other three clans accept the new soldiers before then. I'll explain them in ascending order.

The Spartans are first up; they accept children at birth. However, if the child appears sickly or weak in any way, it is left in the Desert to die. This child then undergoes rigorous training, where they are beaten for failure, and lashed for victory. This was to toughen them up. Many may die, but it must work. Then, when they turn 12, the men are stripped of all privileges, they can't, draw, dance, sing, decorate, and must sleep on a stone bed with a bramble bush pillow. This kills even more of them, but they get even tougher, they are then sent to war after they get married and have a child, or at least impregnate a woman, so there are more recruits.

Then, there are The Immortals, who accept those under the age of 7 who show above average intelligence. They are then taught mathematics, Alchemy, Psychology, and Drama. This is because they train them to use deception to fool their enemies in straight up combat. But they work best in the shadows. That's all anyone outside of their clan can tell you, other than they design their own outfits and weaponry like Hunters do.

Finally, we have The Berserkers, who don't have an age limit. Well, they do, but anyone under 20 can join. They don't train them, or teach them to fool their enemies, or do any sort of teaching. What they do is drive them insane. I s**t you not. They literally lock them in a room until they develop some kind of mental illness. Then they make them hate everything by torturing them while wearing different masks. After that they begin the experimentation process. Tentacles, extra limbs, shape shifting, spontaneous regeneration, you name it, they artificially graft them into your DNA. Though, there has only ever been one subject to ever survive getting all of these implanted on their person. Finally, they equip them. But not like any other tribe or faction found anywhere else on Remnant. They give them the most barbaric, terrifying weapons any man will ever lay eyes on. Chain-swords, buzz-axes, flame-flails, spike grenades, blast grenade launchers, eviscerators, and even springrazors.

Anyway, that's all I know. I'm not gonna hand out tactics to potential enemies, because Atlas is still where my allegiance lies."

Oobleck nodded.

"That's fine, Mr. Douglas. I have more than enough to satisfy my needs. You've just released knowledge that no non-Atlas citizens have ever heard."

Wilhelm laughed as if he'd won.

"It's not like you're gonna remember all that now, is it? Ha!-"

Oobleck leaned forward, and pressed stop on his scroll's voice recorder app.

"Goddammit! How did I not see that?! It was right in front of me!"

"Checkmate. You are dismissed."

Oobleck blurred away, confusing the hell outta Wilhelm. Why can't alcohol do that to me?"

* * *

"Hey guys! How was your first day of Beacon Academy? Was it good? Was it exciting?! Mine wasn't! I thought coming to a school for every criminal's worst nightmare would be exciting!"

Tobias ranted, booting his bed frame repeatedly, breaking the wood...and hurting his toe in the process.

"That was dumb."

Deadpanned Vlad, who hung from the ceiling, playing a sound-based memory game on his scroll.

"Really? Dumb? That was the best word you could think of? I'd've thought that words like imbecilic, retarded, monotonous, pathetic..."

Jasper listed from behind the safety of his book. His book. No, you don't understand. The book was written by him, and told of his exploits, including his dealings with Grimm.

**"What**?! How the hell is destroying a bed _monotonous_?!"

"Considering how you were moved three times in the hospital for the exact same reason, I think this is monotonous by your standards."

The smugness in his voice got on the nerves of the-already irate-Tobias. So, he did what any irrational Tobias would do when someone mocked him: he tried to sock him on the end of the nose.

Naturally, his hand found its mark, only for his nose to dissipate on contact. He tried and failed to regain his balance, causing him to slam his head into Jasper's bed, breaking that as well.

"Ah, I'll be expecting my compensation in three days."

Jasper taunted Tobias' unconscious form, before turning his head to face Vlad.

"Why is it that we're the only mature members of our team, heck, the whole school. Including the teachers...except Goodwitch. She is simply, _terrifying."_

Heshuddered, not wanting to be near the stuck-up teacher for any longer.

"I know! Port is a joke. It was way too easy to get out of his dull class. I told him how I didn't need to know the weak points of an Ursa in one-on-one combat, because I could just latch on and drain it dry."

Jasper nodded in agreement, but realised what he had said.

"Why is he teaching you to fight Grimm in single combat? Ursi travel in pairs. Please tell me that it was an Ursa Major? Please tell me he at least tried to make your life difficult?"

Vlad shook his head. Jasper groaned.

"Let me guess: he gave up after you pointed out that Grimm travel in packs?"

"Yep."

Vlad answered, popping the "P"

"So...how are the ears?"

Vlad raised an eyebrow at the peculiar question.

"They're fine...why? Are they ok?"

Vlad's face had paled even more; they were the only things that could grant him sight.

"They're ok. I've been wondering, though. Have you ever actually been able to see?"

Vlad stiffened, his face curled up into a snarl.

"Why? It's a question. I'm asking."

"You're not getting an answer."

"Yes I am. Know why? I told you I am a Grimm worshipper. Tobias told you he was in the White Fang. Hell, Wilhelm announced to his whole class that he is a child war veteran. You cannot get more of a twisted backstory than them-"

"How about knowing since you were able to remember that anyone will see you as a monster because you have big ears, wings, and claws? How about being forced out of home because of urges you couldn't control? How about living with a heart of guilt knowing you are the reason the girl you loved died? How does that sound?"

Jasper tried to look away, but Vlad slapped him so he was facing him again.

"How about the confusion, and the trauma caused when your father tracks you down, pins you to a tree, then gouges your eyes out, filling the holes with tar? How about that for a _"twisted backstory?!"_

Jasper opened his mouth to apologise, only to get a taste of raw Bat Faunus fist, knocking him out cold.

***KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!***

The impatient knocker rapped the door with his fist three times, waited three seconds, then did it again. This pattern continued for five minutes before Vlad lost his temper.

"Goddamn it, Wilhelm! You live here! You don't need to knock! Why are you even waiting out there?! Don't you remember the password?"

"We have a password?"

Vlad moved to open the door, but as soon as he got to it, he heard Wilhelm yell from the other side.

"Oh, don't worry man. I remember now!"

Needless to say: Door+unsuspecting face=K.O.

Wilhelm surveyed the room, and noticed three things.

1. Two of the beds were broken.

2. All three of his teammates were unconscious.

3. Four bottles of his alcohol laid empty near the beds.

This could only lead to one conclusion in his mind: they were wasted.

"Well, well, well."

He moved over to the fridge and opened it.

"You boys think you can beat me in a drink-off, huh? You emptied four bottles between you! I did that on my own this morning!"

He retrieved six bottles of alcohol from the fridge.

"This is war, my friends. The winner is the man with the worst hangover. Let the games...begin!"

On that night, he drank himself into a stupor.

* * *

"You need to stop drawing attention to us-don't you think razing a mining facility is a little too conspicuous?"

"No. We've not been caught yet, so we're good."

"But at least hear me out. You listening? Good. I know you're lethal, and I respect that, but what you're doing is making us a target for Hunters, Huntresses, Mercenaries-Assassins! What happens when an army of highly trained killers come for us huh?"

"I can't die... I'll outlast them."


	8. Chapter 8

Heyo! This is ThatInternetGuy here, writing every reader's worst nightmare: The Hiatus Message!-

Just kidding!

I'm writing their second worst nightmare: The A/N Chapter!

Basically, I'd like to do a quick Q&A session with all 580+ of you who've read this story. Questions like: "When are we gonna get a Silas murder spree?" or "When's Cardin gonna die?" Any question; no matter what. Oh, and to all ten of you who were smart enough to keep scolling past the pseudo-Hiatus message: congratulations! You're not retarded!


	9. Chapter 9

Okay! I'm gonna be initiating a system: 7 chapters; 1 Q&A. Don't like it? I'm pretty sure you know what to do. Flame me! Because it went so well in my bio (those of you who've read my bio will get that.) Nevertheless; I've only actually had one question, and the answer is very tricky to explain, so if I don't get more questions, I may just bring up the answer in a special chapter for number 16. Just realised I've been describing Jasper's weaponry incorrectly. He uses a tanto, not a tonfa. So, without further adieu, I give you the ineligible product of sleep deprivation and an iPhone.

* * *

Chapter 9: A week of Unfortunate Mishaps Later...

* * *

"Damn it, Will! Get your crippled a** over there now!"

Tobias screamed at his sniper friend, who was really starting to get on his nerves.

"No! I like it here! It's warm and cozy, **and** they have cookies!"

Tobias was ready to throw his weapon at him.

"Wilhelm? I don't like that name, only faggots and sailors are called Wilhelm. From now on you will be known as Private Crotchsniff, do I make myself clear?"

Tobias heard a shaky "Sir, yes s-sir!" through multiple fits of uncontrollable laughter.

"Private Crotchsniff! Wipe that stupid a*s grin off your face!"

Wilhelm's grin subsided, before stretching back out to touch his ears again.

"Well any f*****g time now, Private!"

The same thing occurred, only Wilhelm replied this time.

"Sir, I'm trying sir."

"Well try harder, d*****s! We've got tangos closing in on our position, and you're sat here laughing your a*s off like it's some retarded rom com?! I thought you said you were a soldier, Crotchsniff!"

Wilhelm's-sorry-Crotchsniff's eyes narrowed angrily.

"Sir, I am a soldier sir!"

"b******t, you look like a daisy flower in the clover fields! Are you queer?"

Crotchsniff growled.

"Sir, no sir!"

"Do you suck d***s?"

"Sir, no sir!"

"B******t! I bet you're the kinda guy who'd be able to suck a golf ball through a garden hose! I said get that stupid grin off your face, Crotchsniff! You think I'm funny?! You think I'm cute?"

"Sir, no sir!"

"Private Crotchsniff: I am giving you three seconds; exactly three f*****g seconds! to wipe that stupid a*s look offa your face before **I gouge out your eyeballs and skullf**k you!"**

"1"

Wilhelm's grin remained plastered upon his face, a symbol of defiance.

"2"

The aforementioned grin faded slightly, with the symbol of defiance wavering.

"Ok! You win! I'm f*****g going!-"

"Freeze!"

The two teammates took a look behind them to find Pyrrha Nikos and Lie Ren aiming Milõ and the Stormflowers at them, respectively. The two exchanged glances. No words were spoken, but the message was clear:

"I f*****g hate you!"

"I f*****g hate myself!"

... I'll let you be the judge on who "said" what.

* * *

"Wilhelm and Tobias have been captured."

Vlad informed Jasper, who snickered in response.

"When we emerge victorious, you and I are going to rub this in their faces. Agreed?"

"Most definitely."

Vlad flashed fangs. He dive bombed from the ceiling, catching Jaune unawares. He then began to pummel him; the boy unable to fight back when his arms were pinned above him by Vlad's arms. He was fading into unconsciousness, but he caught a glimpse of a pink blur speeding towards them.

"Batter, batter, batter, batter...SWING!"

Nora came up from behind, wielding Magnhild like a baseball bat, and smashed him into the arena stands.

"Woohoo! We did it, Jaune! Well, not **it, **but we beat Vlad! Yeah! I feel like singing~ Lalala, lalala, la la la~!"

That's when Jasper swept in on an intercept course for Nora, smacking her over the back of the head with the handle of Metzger. The Timer, sensing a nearby soul, reached out to grasp it. However, when it realised the soul was Pure, it spat the soul out, resurrecting Nora. She did not go completely unharmed, though, and was rendered unconscious.

"Nora!"

Ren rushed forwards, guns a blazing, to try and put some distance between the ex-assassin and his partner. However, Jasper had all the threat deterrence he needed. He had Nora.

"Put her down, Jasper!"

Jasper let out a low chuckle.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Lie. We both know that in doing so, I would be surrendering, because even with all my skill, I cannot defeat both you and Miss. Nikos at the same time."

While Jasper distracted him with logic, he planted a shock charge on the body of the unconscious Nora.

"Well then, if you let Nora go, you can fight us one on one."

Another chuckle escaped his lips.

"Of course...catch!"

He threw Nora towards him and ran the other direction...directly into Pyrrha's shield, Akùo, which made his hologram dissipate. He was, in fact, stood behind her, poised to strike.

Akùo came spinning around, forcing Jasper to duck into an armoured boot. Needless to say, that hurt. He retaliated by smacking Akùo with Metzger. The action forced her back a little bit, giving him time to remove a throwing knife and stab the shield. However, when he pulled back, he found that she was using some form of magnetism to pull it away from him. His response was simple: he threw it at her. The blade, now moving at blinding speeds, spun round and round in the air as it approached its target. There was no time for her to dodge, and something made contact with her forehead... The handle. She staggered backwards, stunned, but glad the blade didn't connect. She was distracted, just as he had hoped. Metzger slashed at her knees, Jasper pirouetted after grabbing the knife, spinning Metzger with him, slashing her again, but this time across the waist. Yet again he struck, slashing her abdomen this time, then he did so again, although this one was different from the rest. It dragged from the bottom left half of her ribcage, straight through to her right shoulder. On his final spin, he slashed her cheek with the throwing knife; elbowing her nose in the same movement. She fell to the ground.

"Ok, Mr. Lie, it's time me and you settled our differences-"

He was peppered with bullets from behind, Ren was the offender. It took three seconds for his already meager Aura reserves to deplete, it took another five for him to fall. Ren moved to aid Pyrrha, Nora, and Jaune, when an abnormally large bullet caught his side, tearing a chunk out of his Aura.

"You two are supposed to be in the jail."

Tobias scoffed.

"What? Do you think I've never been imprisoned before? I'm ex-White Fang. Prison's a guarantee at some point in your life."

Tobias closed the gap wearing his Ursa paws, while Wilhelm pounded on his Aura with Arbiter. Tobias swung, but Ren grabbed his arm and used the momentum to both block a bullet with his body, and slam him into the ground. Ren used some of his remaining Aura to fire a palm blast of Aura at Wilhelm, hurtling him head first into a wall.

Tobias punched him on the kneecap, then followed up with a low tackle. He was on top, his superior strength and weight working in his favour. It took him fourteen seconds at most to render Ren unconscious.

"Stop! Ok, class: Team CRDW has defeated Team JNPR in our first lesson of War Games. This occurred because JNPR underestimated the cunning and skill of CRDW. If Tobias and Jasper had not done what they had, this match could've had a very different outcome. I am going to take a few minutes to point out the mistakes and successes of each team, then we will have Team CRDL fight Team RWBY in yet another Dead or Alive match..."

War Games. One of three useful lessons in Beacon Academy. It pits entire teams against each other in various "game modes" varying from Team Deathmatch, Search and Destroy, and Dead or Alive. The first two are self explanatory, Dead or Alive? Slightly less so.

It is similar in nature to Team Deathmatch, but it comes down to the first team to incapacitate or imprison the other team's members first. Vlad hated this lesson; he hated any lesson where he had to perform in front of others. Tobias loved it: this was something he was born to do. Fight for both his entertainment and, occasionally, the entertainment of others. Jasper relished every second of it. He craved a challenge. Outside of the scraps between him and Tobias, this was his chance to find one. Finally, we have Wilhelm's opinion of War Games: he didn't care. So long as he could have a drink of some form of alcohol above 34.679% potency at least three times a day.

As each of them sat there, completely ignoring all of Glynda's hints and tips, they were all thinking about different things.

Vlad was thinking about how nice it'd be to bathe in a pool of Goodwitch's life fluid, with thoughts of horror, disgust, and self-loathing following soon after.

Jasper was thinking about Weiss, how they had avoided each other for a month. He was wondering if they'd ever get back to where they were a year or two ago, or if that wasn't possible, get to the dreaded 'friend zone.' (A/N: I know, right? Who **wants **to be in the friend zone? This guy does.)

Tobias was thinking about food. More specifically: fresh beef steak, cooked rare, with blood oozing out after every bite. _Mmm...beef steak..._

Wilhelm had simple tastes. Mainly due to the fact that Everclear has no flavour. If it did, he probably wouldn't drink it.

Those trains of thought kept on chugging along until a brick wall of piqued interest emerged from the ground, spraying chunks of knowledge and other boring thoughts everywhere. Needless to say, the trains were no match for such an opponent, and they were crushed like empty aluminium cans in a high school yard.

The brick wall was created, because something peculiar happened in the RWBY/CRDL fight: CRDL was holding its own. Dove was holding off Yang with a Dust Shock shield which drained her Aura after every hit. His retaliation was even harder for the girl, because his weapon of choice was a shotgun which fired explosive rounds. Yang was going to be beaten. Cardin was fighting Ruby, and holding his own while doing so too! Ruby's attacks, while fast, couldn't break through the defence of Winchester. He was getting no chances to attack, however, and would eventually slip up. Russell was fighting Weiss, and his unusual display of gang warfare tactics seemed to be paying off against the systematic combat style of the heiress. He was unpredictable, which was a useful asset when fighting Weiss, who had no real fighting experience. He appeared to be using the unusual combination of a crowbar and a pistol, you know what was even more unusual? His erratic behaviour was distracting her, but every time she tried to put some distance between them, a molotov soared through the air on a collision course with her face. Finally, we have Sky. His opponent was Blake, who was known for her agility and speed in battle. Sky is apparently one of a very small list of people in Beacon Academy who could match her speed and agility. He held a tonfa and a uchigatana in his left and right hand respectively. The uchigatana was used to parry attacks, and the tonfa was thrusted in her direction upon a successful case of blocking an attack.

Eventually, CRDL fell. Dove was tricked into the jail, Russell ran out of molotovs, so Weiss was able to discover some form of pattern in his attack, ultimately sealing his fate. Cardin eventually tired himself out, falling to Ruby. Sky was the only one to nearly defeat his opponent, and he would have, if it hadn't turned into a 4-1 fight.

"Enough! Team CRDL has been defeated. Team RWBY has-just barely-emerged victorious."

The "just barely" was said under her breath, but all the Faunus in the room heard her.

"Now, can anyone tell me what made Team CRDL lose?"

* * *

Two hours of rigorous training later, they were freed from the captivity of their class, and were free to return to their natural habitat: the CRDW Dorm. However, they were stopped by their opponents: Team JNPR.

"Hello!"

Pyrrha greeted them with a friendliness they hadn't seen from strangers before-let alone celebrities.

"What do you want?"

Tobias questioned cautiously, not trusting her jovial attitude.

"Well, we wanted to congratulate you."

"For what? Winning?"

"Yeah! You were all so cool out there against us! Well, haha, not that guy-"

Nora pointed at Wilhelm, who was then laughed at by Tobias, who then scowled.

"-but the rest of you were awesome! You!"

She pointed at Vlad, who looked a little uncomfortable with the conversation focused on him.

"You swooped down and you were like "raaaa! Slash, slash slash! Punch!"

"And...I don't really remember much about you."

She pointed at Jasper, who chuckled nervously, knowing exactly what happened.

"I woke up then saw you take down Ren with Ursa claws! If that's not cool, I don't know what is!"

"Yeah, we wanted to, uh, know if you'd like to, uh, come to dinner with us?"

Jaune asked uncertainly.

"Whoa, whoa, **whoa! **Don't you think we're moving too fast?!"

Tobias exclaimed, though it seemed as if he'd overreacted at first, Jasper and Wilhelm quickly caught on.

"Yeah, babe, we don't even know each other's names."

Wilhelm mimicked Tobias's expression and tone.

"Wh-what are you-"

"In fact, the only other time you and I have interacted was back on day one, when you threw up on my jacket."

Jaune paled, Team CRDW snickered.

"Oh! I'm sorry! Do you want me to wash it?! I didn't mean to-"

"Jaune. It's been two weeks. Do you honestly believe I'm going to leave my favourite jacket covered in vomit for two weeks just to have you wash it? By the way: we are screwing with you."

Jaune "oh'd" then chuckled nervously.

"Well...do you wanna come?"

"Sure thing, twinkle-toes."

Tobias patted Jaune on the shoulder.

"Meh. Why not?"

Wilhelm shrugged, and took a swig of his drink.

"Want some?"

Everyone on his team immediately declined, and JNPR chose to follow suit.

"What about you two? You coming?"

Vlad shook his head and walked off.

"What's up with him?"

"I dunno. Don't care either. Let's eat!"

Tobias strutted off to the Cafeteria with Jaune under one arm, and Nora under the other.

"Is he normally so callous with his teammates' feelings?"

Wilhelm stared at her blankly, as if that were common knowledge.

"I have many nicknames, but he decided to give me another two: Captain Cripple and Private Crotchsniff."

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow, but Wilhelm waved her off.

"Don't worry, I almost have as much dirt on him as I do on Vacuo."

"Ok. Are we going to catch up with our teammates now?"

"Sure, why not? I'm running outta booze anyway."

He finished his bottle, then stumbled down the corridor.

"Jasper? Are you coming?"

"No. I'm terribly sorry for the inconveniences my absence will entail; I know I don't want to have to sit with those two. I'm going to check on Vlad. Tobias won't do it, and all Wilhelm does is drink and moan, so it has to be me. Good day."

Jasper bowed his head, then swiftly made his way to where he knew he would find the winged member of Team CRDW.

* * *

"S'up, b*****s?!"

"The ceiling."

Both Yang and Wilhelm replied.

"Jinx!"

They both spoke at the same time again.

"Hey! Stop saying what I'm saying! You're still doing it-jinx! Ahhhgh! You're still doing it! Why?! Why are you so weird?! Were you dropped into a vat of radioactive spiders as a child that made you psychic? Oh, come on! This is just plain ridiculous now-jinx! How can we be saying the exact same thing?"

They both looked each other in the eyes, then shook their heads in disbelief before taking a swig from their bottles. Yang had mountain spring water, Wilhelm had cooking wine. He had already emptied the chef's regular alcohol reserves, so he had to make do with the cheap stuff.

"So, you two seem like a pretty good match."

Wilhelm and Yang spat their drinks out all over each other.

**_"WHAT?!"_**

"Jinx."

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-ow! B***h-aghh!"

Tobias got him. Then hit him. Twice.

"I win! Anyways, I'd like to informally introduce myself. Name's Tobias Carven: ex-White Fang hitman, ex-mercenary extraordinaire. I'm the boss of Team CRDW. C.E.O; king...if you're feeling dramatic. I quit my first job after meeting Jasper... In fact, I think the job I got was to kill you."

He pointed a finger at Weiss, who wore a scowl on her face.

"You were there, weren't you?"

Tobias let out a sardonic laugh.

"No. I was sat in DcMonalds eating a Mig Bac and some fries."

Weiss gave him an unimpressed glare.

"Yes, I was there, and I would've succeeded, if it weren't for that meddling kid!"

Tobias put on his best creepy old man impression, and shook his fist. Then burst out laughing.

"No, but-in all seriousness-I tried to kill you. Hell, I even planned it out... Fortunately, Jasper was on the scene! He alone foiled my nefarious plot to end the bloodline of the Schnee family. But, don't interrupt me yet! The best part is still to come! What do you think his reward was, Miss Rose?"

He gazed at her, expectantly. Waiting for her to answer.

"Uh, a thank you?"

"Nope."

"Money?"

Blake asked, thinking logically.

"You'd think so, but no."

"Snack-a-Jacks? ***THUD!*** Agh!"

Wilhelm guessed, and ate a fist.

"No! He was awarded... A criminal record and a badge of shame! A badge that he wears **to this day! **And that, dear children, is how Mr. Schnee repays the man who saved his daughter's life! I mean: after Aiden you'd think he'd've-"

**_*SMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMACKK!?*_**

Tobias had been laid out on the floor (yes, she can do that) due to the sheer power behind the slap. He lay there, whimpering in pain. Wilhelm lay there, crying tears of pure happiness and amusement. Weiss had left. Simply put, she had stormed out, trampling a poor Rabbit Faunus who had gotten in her way. This was about the time Jasper entered the Cafeteria, helping the girl up.

"What happened?"

"Uh, he mentioned something about a guy called Aiden-"

Jasper tore the bottle of cooking wine from Wilhelm's hands, then wrapped it around Tobias' skull (somehow...)

"That was cruel."

Jasper turned his back on his friend, and left.

"... Mah wine... He... He took mah wine... Why?"

Wilhelm had curled up into a foetal position, sucking his thumb, muttering insanely.

Team RWBYNPRJ (Robin Partridge) looked at each other in disbelief.

"Are you four...usually like this?"

Yang asked, only to be flicked on the ear by a clawed finger.

"I believe you were jinxed. And yes, we are."

* * *

So... How was that for a disappointing chapter? One week for that?! Ha! Oh, by the way: I've got a poll up on my profile, I think, and it has a choice between a few games/other things I'd like to xover, and the most popular vote will be written up! The best part? It's a blind poll! Aren't ya excited?!


	10. Chapter 10

Heyo! ThatInternetGuy here, cocked, and locked, so prepare to be shocked! I've had one vote on my poll, and the result didn't shock me, I mean: it's one of the most popular games for xovers, after all. Anyway, if you have any more recommendations for my next xover, simply review and tell me what you think it should be! (P.S: other than RWBY, I've seen the Death Note Relight films, some Ghost in a Shell, and my cousin has leant me the 1st 51 episodes of Soul Eater. So don't expect masterpieces in the anime section.) Also, **get asking questions!... **Jeez, I'm like the opposite of the government. Anyway, at this rate the Q&A session on question 16 is gonna be a chapter focused around explaining FlamingGinger06's question. Honestly? I really don't want that. Also, I'm gonna do something I've never ever tried before, even at school. I'm gonna try to write a successful 2nd person chapter! Who are we following, I hear you ask? Well his name is-

Ha! You thought I was just gonna tell you?! Yeah...you're gonna have to scroll down three more lines to find out, aren't you?

* * *

Chapter 10: There's a First Time for Everything...

* * *

'_Hollow, frail, weak, disturbed, deranged, insane, gun, madman, psychopath, scythe, blade, pitchfork, sickle, dagger, sword...'_

"The voices never cease. No...they do. Sometimes. But only when I kill. It seems to silence them, whether it is out of horror or amazement, I know not. He calls out to me; I make no choices. He knows all; I know nothing. He is strong; I was weak. He shepherded me into his flock of power and truth. There is no dishonesty among Grimm, nor treachery, nor currency. All that Humans think the roots of all evil, are not actually utilised by those whom they consider evil incarnate."

_'Evil, darkness, light, shade, cold, hot, burn, fire, ice, freeze, boil, wart, blister, sear, branding, traitor, deceiver, money, rich, poor...'_

"There they go again. They chatter endlessly, gnawing at my conscience-no! They have an end. They always have an end. Everything has an end... Except Grimm. He is a constant in this world, which, in itself, is a Remnant of a forgotten time. A time of Reverence. Light everywhere, no appreciation for that which is light, for there was no dark to match it. The dark came, and balanced the world; there were too many creatures of the light. No balance, no...no balance..."

These are your thoughts, Silas. Do you like them? Of course you do; they're yours. You have been working with Torchwick with some time now. Just as I told you to. He had you raid Dust shops for our master plan. However, I had you take it a step further. I had you brutally murder everyone in those shops. Why? So you'd enjoy yourself. I know your pain, Silas. And I understand it. I have been through the same as you. Archangel betrayed me. For him. All I had ever done was what I was born to do.

"Hey, Silas. Come over here, I've got something you and your boss may wanna look at."

Well? What are you waiting for? Go and have a look! That's right, kill one of his goons, just to make a statement-ah! There you go! See that look in his eyes? That, my loyal minion, is the look of uncertainty.

'_Uncertainty, distrust, concern, fear...'_

Yes, fear. He knows-or he thinks he knows-you. He can tell you're aggressive. He knows that if today is the day that you finally snap-which it isn't-he will not survive the encounter. That false knowledge makes him 57% more likely to listen to us.

"There is a delivery of high quality arms coming in from Vacuo. I wanted to know if you'd like to join me on a little joint business venture?"

Ah, he has a sound plan, but one thing concerns me. Ask him where he got this information from.

"Where did you get this intelligence from?"

"My contacts."

"Which ones?"

"Just some guys high up in Vacuo's shipment industry. They send me the contacts through this scroll, here..."

He's lying. I already know who he got the contacts from, I wanted to know if he would be honest. Tell him the error of his ways, aggressively, if possible.

'_Possible, impossible, dread, failure, success, victory, defeat, mourn, loss, gain...'_

"You're lying~"

Ooh, that was nice. A deep, croaky little singsong. Carry on, this is quality entertainment.

"My master already knows your contact. I will ask one more time, and if my master doesn't like the answer..."

Now grab the guy next to you-no, not Torchwick, the other guy! Yeah. That one. Now tear his head off. Good...

'_Good, bad, evil, pure, corrupt, sinner, saint, angel, demon...'_

"Get the picture?"

Oh, he gets the picture... The picture of him being decapitated with nothing but your hands.

"(Sigh) Cinder Fall wants to give me a second chance, but she won't give it to me unless you're there-"

"We're leaving. Come on."

(Sigh) Silas...sate your bloodlust. You have no idea where you're going. Well... I do. But you don't. And I'm not gonna tell you. Go find out. Go on, ask him.

"... So, where are we meeting her?"

You see what you've done now?! He's laughing at you. Congratulations, you are now the laughing stock of the fairy tale bad guy roster. The undead host of an ancient fallen deity just asked a metrosexual thief for directions...how emasculating is that?!

"(Barely controllable laughter) Yeah, she's going to be at the docks in Vale-"

"We're leaving."

Wait Silas, you idiot! He isn't finished!

"-In three weeks."

"Why bother telling us this if we have to wait three weeks to pull off the heist?"

"I just wanted it give you a sub-goal. You always seem so focused on your endgame. You don't even seem to pay attention to the people you're executing."

I find that offensive. My minions do not fight dishonourably! They tried to fight back...badly.

"They fought back."

"Doesn't change a thing my friend-acquaintance. Did they hurt you?

"No."

"Did they make you uncomfortable?"

"No."

"Did they even slightly inconvenience you?"

"No."

"Then it is an execution whether you like it or not."

"I don't care; that means it isn't an execution, it's a massacre."

"... Oh, whatever!"

So, readers. This next section will **not be in the 2nd person. **My speech will be italic and will be surrounded by ' marks, much like the dialogue of the voices in Silas' head. Honestly? It is most probably the section you've been waiting for, too. There will be scenes of insane ramblings, brutal violence and torture scenes...and moments of sheer stupidity that require a double facepalm; for when one facepalm just isn't enough.

* * *

"Ok Silas. Just wait here. I'm gonna go in, and I'll signal you if I need you-no, Silas wait!... Goddamn it! He never listens to me."

I ignored his ramblings for awhile, he had spoken enough already. What pleased me about these missions, was the freedom I got. Normally, Grimm keeps me on a leash so I don't kill Torchwick. He releases me on these missions. I can do whatever I want, so long as I don't kill my important allies. Anyone else is fair game.

The door was locked, meaning they weren't expecting visitors. Regardless, the door was no obstruction; I simply tore it off. Sure, the alarm rang...for all of five seconds. I just used the shadowkinesis power gifted to me by Grimm to find the source of the infernal racket. Then I snuffed it out within a shadow box. There was a deathly silence permeating the air. That lasted for about three seconds before a scream and an angry roar broke it.

"Alright, you little punks! I've had just about enough of you damn teenagers! When I catch you: I'm gonna leave you all looking like a f*****g modern art masterpiece-"

I'll be honest: if I _were_ a teenager, I would've been terrified. He looked about 6ft and was built like a brick wall. Still though, I'm not a teenager.

"No, no. It's **you**, who will be the masterpiece; you can call me Picasso."

I approached, sickle in my small hand. He swung a right haymaker, but all he accomplished was breaking his wrist. The sickle swung, the cut being my mirror; I was examining his symmetry. He was far too symmetrical for my tastes, so I removed his left eye with my giant thumb, then amputated his lower right leg. His entire left arm was then torn off, and he was dumped in a pile on the now red floor-which would be my canvas.

_Canvas, horizon, future, grim, Grimm, all-knowing, omniscient, omnipotent, omnimalevolent, omnibenevolent, Reverence... Hate!_

Upstairs, I found the rest of the materials I needed for my masterpiece. The man's wife and two children were found upstairs. The woman was screaming something along the lines of "Go away!" and "Leave my kids alone!" as well as waving a firearm at me. The boy was crying, most likely because he could still hear his father's screams. The girl was silent, however, and looked like she was about to try and escape. The mother noticed me tense up and prepare to kill the little one, so she shot me in the foot. I laughed at her, then stabbed my pitchfork into her feet. The boy's jaw found itself stuck on my sickle like a fish on a hook. It turned to the girl, ready to kill. However, I saw something inside her... Something far too similar to me to be mere coincidence. She then leapt out the nearest window. I sighed, knowing I'd never be able to dissect her and find out. Systematically, the two corpses-to-be and myself found ourselves downstairs.

The boy's neck went snap-and with it-the woman's psyche.

"Alright, you've got a gun: you know how to see them again."

The woman nodded, lifelessly, then shot herself in the head.

"No! You b******!"

"Well then, are you gonna join her?"

He seemed confused.

"What do you mean?! When I die, I'll see her again... Won't I?"

"Not normally."

* * *

(Cue music: Disturbed-Inside the Fire.)

"Devin!

Won't go to heaven!

She's just another lost soul, about to be mine again!

Leave her; we will receive her.

It is beyond your control, will you ever meet again?"

I could see the terror in his eyes; he still didn't fully understand.

"Devin!

One of eleven!

Who had been rendered unwhole.

As a little child, she was taken, and then forsaken!

You will remember it all.

Let it fill your mind again!"

He seemed to be getting the picture. I decided to seal the deal by summoning a portal to Hell.

"Devin lies beyond this portal, take the word of one immortal!

Give your soul to me!

For eternity;release your life to begin another time with her

End your grief with me!

There's another way; release your life take your place inside the fire with her!"

Defiance sparked in his eyes.

"No! She wouldn't want me to do this!

"Oh really?"

"Sever!

Now and forever; you're just another lost soul about to be mine again

See her, you'll never free her, you must surrender it all.

If you'd like to meet again:"

He saw her screaming, as demons of many sizes mutilated her body, then revived her upon the time of her death.

"Fire!

For your desire!

As she begins to turn cold for the final time;

You will shiver, till you deliver, you will remember it all.

Let it fill your mind again!"

I let the concept of what I was saying sink in, then asked him what he was going to do.

"I-I don't know! Heaven wouldn't be Heaven without her!"

"Then you know what to do."

"No. I-I don't want to-"

I'd had enough; it was time for him to make a decision.

"Take it away, yeah!"

His children were now being mutilated too.

"Give your soul to me!

For eternity; release your life, to begin another time with her.

End your grief with me: there's another way, release your life.

Take your place inside the fire with her!"

He was moving now, crawling over to the portal.

"Devin!

One of eleven!

Who had been rendered unwhole.

As a little child: she was taken, and then forsaken!

You will remember it all.

Let it fill your mind again, man!"

(End of Song)

The man had reached the portal, and had stuck his hand inside. However, his body didn't go through: it was his soul.

* * *

I finished my masterpiece, collected the Dust, and stepped outside...to the hilarious sight of Roman Torchwick getting tossed around by a nine-year-old girl.

_'Dyanea! Stop.'_

She froze up, then turned, shock and hope in her eyes.

"Dad?"

_ 'Yes. It's me, Grimm.'_

That would be one of the only times me and Torchwick would agree on something: we wanted answers.

"Explain."

_'Watch your tone, Reaves! Dyanea is my daughter.'_

"Ok. Now that we're done with all the family reunion c**p, I suggest we get going."

Sirens blared in the distance.

'_... Agreed.'_

There was a massing of darkness, and then we disappeared.

* * *

"Back to third person mode!"

Silas screamed when they reappeared at their hideout, confusing Roman and Dyanea.

'That is none of your concern.'

"Hey, Grimm!"

The oily avatar of Grimm sprung from his shadow, staring him dead in the eye.

"I'd like you to let me know more about your children."

Grimm nodded.

"Well, every now and again I find a Human who captures my interest, and so, we court. We make love, and we have children. Although they usually have husbands, thus why I have four children. My current children are: Dyanea Gor'gon, Blain Andrews, Jacqueline Estacado, and **[REDACTED]**"

The last name confused them.

"What makes them special, anyway?"

Grimm laughed.

"Other than being my offspring? They have no souls. Their powers are only revealed at six, although they must live through a traumatic experience for their true power to be revealed. Dyanea's here is Intelligence. She will never be as physically or magically strong as her siblings, but she can match my intellect, allowing her to construct machinery to help her. Blain's is the power of Fear. He always enjoyed scaring people, until he had his face removed for his biggest prank ever. His family tried to kill him. He passed out from the sheer terror that coursed through him, and his fear empowered him, making him subconsciously kill his family. Now, he uses fear to debilitate his enemies, who are usually childRen for whatever reason. Jacqueline's is the Shadows. I gave her my pets: Malice and Spite, and they give her power by allowing her to recharge her Presence through the Darkness. Finally, we have **[REDACTED]**. His situation is very peculiar indeed. Because he still has his original Semblance and his Presence. However, he is now fifteen and is still living through his traumatic experience-which began at six years old. What this means, I know not. But we're going to break him out as soon as we're done with Miss. Fall. Now! Are there any more questions?!"

Silence...

"Good! Now let's get to work!"

* * *

F**k. My. Life. Too many distractions. You know that Soul Eater box set I mentioned up top? Yeah. That happened. Also, sorry about the whole **[REDACTED] **thing. It would be a dead giveaway for my next story arc.


	11. Chapter 11

Heyo! How's it hanging?! You doing good? I am. Just yesterday I bore witness to the RWBY Season 2 Trailer. I am impressed. Regardless: I think it's time to get out of Arc 2, don't you think. That's why I'm gonna be going through Jaunedice and Forever Fall ASAP. Preferably before the Q&A that only has two questions... From the same person! What is it?! Are you not confused?! Am I a better writer than I originally believed?! Or are you too shy to admit you don't understand something?! Get asking more questions. Before I get started: FlamingGinger06, please don't ask any more questions until the Q&A is done; I'll PM you any of the answers to the questions you need to know. Also, I've recently discovered that Remnant's guns don't actually fire bullets, they fire Dust. So just think about what I just said. That's why DeathStalkers are so dangerous: guns don't actually fire solid projectiles, they fire Dust energy, so their projectiles cannot pierce the beast's exoskeleton. Now this information gives me new opportunities. You'll see why in this chapter Now that I'm done calmly typing my words, I think it's time to take Jaunedice out of the picture.

* * *

Chapter 11: Jaunedice Sucks D**k!

* * *

"Hahahaha! Cardin's kicking his a*s!"

Wilhelm spluttered, showering the crowd below him with Everclear.

"I know, right?! I'm surprised this Arc kid hasn't already smeared Winchester all over the floor!"

Team CRDW had opted for a Vlads-eye view of the fight, so they got Rosenkov to fly them all up into the upper levels of the arena so they could get a better view.

"Well, I've done my research on this boy, and from what I read of his transcripts, Cardin should be dead by now. Unfortunately for Jaune, his past records actually show him going to a normal school. He actually has next to no combat experience outside of what he's learnt here. It's only a matter of time before the Professor finds out-"

Jasper was interrupted by Vlad, who had been unusually quiet (and by that I mean silent, he is normally very quiet anyway.)

"No. Ozpin doesn't actually read transcripts. He does his own background check on every student here, then asks Glynda to cross-reference both sources. He then decides whether or not he's gonna let them in, meaning he already knows Jaune's a failure of a Hunter, he is simply waiting to see if he improves."

"Oh really? And how would you know that, Drac?"

Vlad flashed a smile.

"I lived here for awhile, remember? The only reason the cafeteria has food is because I have an animal farm in the lower levels of the school-"

*CRACK!*

The sound of mace meeting face caught their attention, as Jaune flew through the air like a kite in the midst of a hurricane. Cardin stepped over him, and was about to make Jaune's head resemble a crushed watermelon, when Glynda called the match, pointed out Jaune's flaws, then gave us all a reminder that the Vytal Tournament is coming up in a few weeks time.

"Yo miss?! I'd like to have a battle. Tournament style so I can get a good idea what I'm s'posed to do."

Glynda paused for a moment, then complied.

"Very well, Mr. Carven. Who would you like to battle?"

Tobias smirked.

"Might as well be Miss Nikos. She's had quite a bit of experience in Tournaments, so I've heard."

"Oh how brave of you! Mr. She-has-more-experience-than-anyone-else-in-the-room. Pick a member of the team we destroyed last week! I thought you 'n Jasper were looking for a challenge, not a workout with a hot Amazonian babe."

Wilhelm snarked drunkenly, confirming the "drunkenly" part of the last sentence by downing what was left of his third bottle of the toxic substance.

"Ok then, Wilhelm: you will be Tobias' challenger."

Wilhelm got up out of his seat, beaming confidence. He got ready to walk down the steps...only to lose his balance and fall directly in front of Yang Xiao Long.

"Argh... Hey babe. That's a mighty fine piece of a*s you got there. Why don't we-"

Tobias leapt from the balcony feet first, crushing Tobias.

"Hey there! Just...dropping in?"

Yang asked playfully, twirling her hair.

"Damn right I am, sugar tits-"

Wilhelm tripped him up, sending him sprawling head-first into Yang's cleavage.

Her eyes turned red, and she uppercut him into the arena floor.

"Hahaha... Alright babe, I'll catch ya later!-whoa!"

Once again, Wilhelm fell, but this time he rolled down the steps, bruising his body. As soon as he got to the bottom of the steps, a big gate slammed down, blocking his escape. Then, the whistle blew, and the match began.

"Alright, Captain Cripple! Let's dance!"

Tobias charged with his Ursa gloves. Wilhelm did the smartest thing he'd done all day: he ran. He ran like a little girl...but, you know, faster...and with a lot less dignity. Still, it took Tobias all of five seconds to catch up and kick his legs out from under him.

"Oh no! You got me! Whatever will I do?!"

The sarcasm in his voice was clear as fresh water. Tobias found out firsthand why when the ground below him erupted in flame.

"Landmines~"

Wilhelm sung as he got to his feet, drawing Arbiter and his P226 handgun. Tobias growled and tore his claymore from its sheath on his back.

"Nice trick, but let's see how long you last for realzies!"

Tobias charged, tripping another landmine. That didn't stop him, though, he kept on charging. What did stop him was the barrage of Shock Dust rounds sent his way. Wilhelm was forced to switch out his Boom Dust rounds for Shock for training, as Shock Dust is used for non-lethal firearms in the military and the police force. His rifle, Arbiter-on the other hand-could not be downgraded so easily. You see, Arbiter is a very strange weapon. It had gone through so many redesigns and makeshift retrofits that many believe it should not be able to fire. One thing that Wilhelm had changed was the ammunition. Instead of firing standard Dust rounds, his gun shoots solid projectiles; a trait that only three other rifles use (one being Jasper's Kishock Harpoon Rifle, another being the gin which maimed Wilhelm and killed his father, and the rifle once wielded by Summer Rose-now in the possession of Silas Reaves.) Thus, he was forced to load pieces of rubber into his magazines to prevent the bullets from eviscerating Tobias. They still hurt, though.

"Goddamn it! Get over here you little s**t!"

Tobias somehow managed to bat one of the rubber bullets back at Wilhelm, stunning him for a moment. This gave him a brief window to close the gap, which he used to slam his claymore's handle into Wilhelm's forehead.

"Oww!"

Tobias dropped his sword, and went straight to pummelling Wilhelm with the Ursa paws. Wilhelm's Aura dropped to the yellow, and it was beginning to show. He was beginning to concentrate. His attacks were getting faster and more precise, forcing Tobias to redouble his efforts. However, the fight was beginning to take its toll on his Aura too. While nowhere near as affected as Wilhelm's Aura, he was still nearing the yellow zone and neededd to end it quickly. The Wolf readied himself, took a deep breath and activated his Semblance: Discharge. (unlike Ren's Aura Projection, Discharge is best put to use against enemies with Aura. He sends an electronic pulse of converted Aura through their body, which depletes Aura reserves and paralyses the nervous system.) The force of this attack sent Wilhelm sailing through the air...straight into an arena wall...leaving an imprint of his body.

"Ooooh!"

Was the general reaction of the crowd, who all winced.

"Boom! I win! See you next week ladies!"

"Mr. Winchester! What on Remnant do you think you're doing?! The match is far from over."

This surprised quite a few members of the audience.

"That was a...nice punch, I'll give ya that. Still, it hurt like hell!-Agh! Anywho; I have two things to thank you for.

1. Thank you for draining my Aura, I felt like I had a permanent hangover.

2. Thank you for cracking my back: that particular spot was getting on my nerves."

Tobias' brow was furrowed in confusion.

"Confused? Remember: I'm drunk and I have f****d up nerve endings. I thought you'd've learnt that by now. Anyway I'm done talking: how 'bout we finish this with a little dance?"

Pyrrha's eyebrows raised in surprise. Jaune took notice.

"Uhhm...Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha snapped out of her trance and replied.

"Oh, sorry Jaune: what was it you wanted to ask me?"

"Why were you acting all surprised?"

"Well. Wilhelm is a very famous man back home in Atlas, and his death dance is part of the reason why."

Wilhelm stood sideways on, Arbiter in his right hand, a combat knife in the other. Tobias grew bored very quickly and charged. His first mistake. Will simply danced around the vertical chop, firing a shot off into the back of Toby's kneecap. Toby swung horizontally while spinning to face him. Will ducked, shot him in the foot, and used the recoil to drive the butt of Arbiter into Toby's jawline. He then began dancing around Tobias, smacking, shooting and stabbing him while humming something about a Danger Line. Twenty seconds later, Tobias collapsed in a bloody heap.

The match was called, the gates raised, and Goodwitch stood in the centre of the arena to address the crowd.

"Now students, you're probably wondering why I didn't call the match when Wilhelm's Aura dropped to below the red. That is simple. This year the Vytal Tournament will be accepting fighters from Atlas, Menagerie, and Vacuo. As such, the rules have been edited to Atlas' standards; where you fight until you submit or are incapable of continuing."

Vlad picked up several "gulps" throughout the arena.

"Class dismissed."

The rest of CRDW literally swooped down to aid Tobias.

"Congratulations Wilhelm. I honestly would've put my money on Tobias if we were allowed."

Jasper patted Will on the back, then grabbed one of Tobias' legs. Will grabbed the other, and Vlad grabbed hold of his arms with his feet before using his wings to take the strain of Toby's weight.

"Upper body strength really isn't your thing is it, Jasper?"

Vlad asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I've never been in a war, nor have I lived in a cave for the better part of 10 years, so both of you have an advantage in that department."

Wilhelm gigged childishly.

"Hey guys; I've got an idea."

He whispered his plan to both of them, to which they responded with roaring laughter and a nod of the head.

* * *

"Hey Jaune: way to take an a*s-kicking like a champ! I probably would've killed myself by now. There's no way I'd've carried on living if he beat me that badly. You really are a trooper."

Wilhelm stumbled over drunkenly, putting his arm around Jaune's shoulder as he spoke in an encouraging tone of voice.

"Yeah. Thanks. Still those were some pretty sweet moves against Tobias. You usually lose your sparring practice because of the Aura rule, but since it got removed; I can see why most of the soldiers on the planet fear you."

Vlad moved over to the table cautiously, not liking the attention he'd drawn to himself simply by entering the room.

"Hey Vlad! What brings you to the wonderful world of socialisation?"

"Uh. Hi?"

Vlad looked like a three year old who'd been thrown in the deep end of a swimming pool so he'd learn to swim.

"Now now, Vlad: use your English words."

Jasper coached Vlad on how to talk in public with a very condescending tone.

"Ok. Hi Half Life: how's it going?"

Jasper spat out a drink of water all over Weiss, who blasted him across the cafeteria.

"Oh? He hasn't told you? Jasper Whitehall is a Grimm-"

Tobias had entered the cafeteria while Vlad was speaking, and collected his teammates, placing them all in a big group headlock.

"Hi guys! How's it hanging? ! Are we all having fun? I'm not! Wanna know why?! Because you three dumped me in a f*****g pile of Cow s**t!"

Wilhelm began laughing, but was quickly punched on the nose.

"How about we all go and talk in our dorm for a private discussion? No objections? Cool! Let's go!"

Team CRDW stampeded out the room, trampling Team CRDL, who were bullying Velvet Scarletina. Wilhelm managed to slip out of his headlock unnoticed, and moved to check on her.

"Uhh...hey. You good?"

She stared up at him with tears welling in her fearful eyes. This was a stare Wilhelm had met so many ttims before under much different circumstances.

"Y-yes. Thank you."

Wilhelm smiled.

"Cool. You gonna be alright, or d'ya want me to stay? Cause honestly? I'd rather sit here with you than get castrated by Tobias. Name's Wilhelm Douglas: pleasure to see ya."

He held out his hand to shake hers, but she recoiled, fearing the pain that follows an approaching palm. Eventually, she realised that he wasn't going to hit her, and pleasantly returned the gesture.

"Velvet Scarletina, and the feeling is mutual."

* * *

So I was planning on doing all of Jaunedice this chapter, but I'm feeling lazy so this is what you get. No apologies shall be given out this day.


	12. Chapter 12

_"This_ is prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as The Faunus War!" Professor Bartholomew Oobleck zoomed accross the class room, leaving a blur behind him resembling a wasabi stain on a piece of paper. By piece of paper, I mean homework. And by homework, I mean Tobias' unfinished homework. And by wasabi, I...mean wasabi. He had decided that he couldn't be bothered to do the assignment set by the hyperactive teacher, and had smeared his paper with wet wasabi to mask his laziness.

"Humankind was quite, quite _adamant_ about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie."

Oobleck pointed at the map of said-area with his stick, then zoomed off to the side for a sip of his coffee before appearing in front of the desk.

"Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively _recent_ events! Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!"

Oobleck blurred around the room some more, blending in with Wilhelm's hangover vision perfectly.

"Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"

Some students raised their hands, Vlad and Tobias among them. Velvet, after a moment, followed suit.

"Dreadful, simply dreadful! Remember, students, it is _precisely_ this kind of ignorance that breeds violence!"

He took another sip of his coffee.

"I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to White Fang! Now, which one of you young scallions can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the War?"

Weiss, being the good little know-it-all she was, raised her hand faster than Wilhelm could track. But then again...

"Yes?"

"The battle at Fort Castle!"

"Precisely! _And_, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"

Unseen by the professor, Cardin flicked a paper football at Jaune's head, causing him to wake up.

"Hey!"

Oobleck zoomed straight up into his grill.

"Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"

"Uhhhh... The answer... The advantage... of the Faunus..."

Pyrrha was waving her hand frantically in a desperate attempt to get Jaune's attention. She succeeded, and pointed at her eyes.

"...had over that guy's stuff..."

Tobias caught on to what they were doing and decided to intervene. He shook his head, then made the universal action depicting:

"Uhh...**Binoculars**!"

For the first three seconds, the room was silent. Jaune looked pleased with his answer, Pyrhha was glaring daggers at Tobias, and everyone else in their little posse wore faces of disbelief. Then they started laughing, and Bartholomew sipped his coffee. Pyrrha sighed and slapped a hand to her forehead as Cardin pounded his fist on his desk while chortling.

"Very funny, Mr. Arc! Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject!"

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an _animal_ than a soldier."

"You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you-"

Tobias interrupted Pyrrha with a witty remark.

"I guess that's why the Faunus in our Combat Training lessons are so much better than you, eh Cardin?"

"What? You two got a problem?"

"No, I have the answer! It's _night vision_. Many Faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark."

"Speak for yourself."

Vlad muttered dejectedly, once again alienated from the rest of his kind. Cardin growled at her when she answered correctly, while Tobias laughed at his expense.

"General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured." (_turned to Cardin_) "Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as _such_ a failure."

That was the final straw for Cardin, as he got up and charged at her. Tobias quickly intercepted with a size ten boot to Winchester's forehead.

"Enough! Gentlemen; please take your seat."

Jaune burst out laughing at his tormenter's misfortune.

"You, Mr. Carven _and_ Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings."

"Oohhhh..."

"Now! Moving on!"

* * *

_When the lesson ended, most of gang left the classroom, only for Pyrrha and Jasper to stop near the doorway._

"You go on ahead. I'll wait for Jaune."

"I'm staying behind to make sure Tobias doesn't skin Cardin alive with his teeth"

The gang hastily left, wanting to get to dinner before all the good stuff was raided. Vlad brook away from the pack, however, and headed towards his livestock. The two who had stayed behind took a peek through the crack of the door.

"You three have been struggling in my class since day one! Now, I don't know if it's a lack of interest, or just your stubborn nature, but whatever it is..." (he took_ a longer sip of his coffee_) "It stops now! You've worked hard to gain entrance to this school, and we only accept the best of the best, _so_ I expect you to act like it. History is important, gentlemen! If you can't learn from it... you're destined to repeat it. Pages fifty-one to ninety-one! I want an essay on my desk by next class! Oh, and Tobias? I'm still waiting for that assignment-Now! Run along."

With that, he zoomed out of the classroom and past the waiting pair in a green and white blur. Jaune came out first, and Cardin emerged behind him, pushing him to the ground and emitted an "Ow!" from him that made the bully laugh before walking away.

"Hey, d**khead! Why don't ya try that with me?!-see how far that gets you!"

With an enraged roar, the mountain of muscle zoomed off in pursuit of a now fleeing Cardin Winchester.

"Wait Tobias! You can kill him later! I want a slice of the b*****d while he's still breathing!"

Jasper followed suit, but at almost double the speed.

"You know, I really will break his legs."

Jaune sighed. Pyrrha, out of nowhere looked as if she'd had a eureka moment.

"I have an idea! Here, come with me!"

She grabbed Jaune and dragged him down the corridor at breakneck speed

* * *

A dejected Jaune and Pyrrha got onto the rooftop of one of the buildings, with a clear view of the glowing green orbs in the central tower of Beacon.

"Pyrrha, I know I'm going through a hard time right now, but I'm not _that _depressed."

Pyrrha didn't seem to understand.

"I can always be a farmer or something..."

Realization hit her with horror.

"N-n-no!"

She dashed to push Jaune away from the edge.

"That's not why I brought you up here!"

They stood face to face at the edge of the roof, but failed to see Cardin crawling out of his dorm's window a few feet below them.

"Jaune, I know you're having a difficult time in class and that you're still not the strongest of fighters, so... I want to help you!"

"Wh-what?"

"We can train up here after class where no one can bother us!"

"You think I need help?"

"N-no! No, that's not what I meant."

"But you just said it."

"Jaune, everybody needs a little push from time to time. It doesn't make you any different from the rest of us. You made it to Beacon! That speaks volumes of what you're capable of!"

Jaune turned away from her, and lowered his head and voice.

"You're wrong. I-I don't belong here."

"That's a terrible thing to say! Of course you do!"

Jaune spun back around, fire in his eyes.

"No, I don't!"

He sighed as Pyrrha looked at him, bewildered, so he revealed the truth.

"I wasn't really accepted into Beacon..."

He turned his back to her so he didn't have to face her.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"I mean I didn't go to combat school, I didn't pass any tests. I didn't _earn_ my spot at this Academy!"

Jaune turned back to face her.

"I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied!"

"What? But... why?"

She seemed hurt, though the shock in her voice was noticeable too.

**"**'Cause _this_ is always what I've wanted to be!"

Once again he turned away, and his voice took a more somber, or depressed tone.

"My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one, too. I was just never good enough."

Pyrrha approached him, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Then let me help you!"

Jaune suddenly turned on her with mad frustration.

"I don't **want** help! I don't **want** to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!"

"Jaune, I-"

Pyrrha tried to explain, but he cut her off.

"I'm _tired_ of being the lovable idiot, stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives! Don't you understand? If I can't do this on my own... then what good am I?"

Pyrrha attempted to reach out for his arm and console him, but he leaned back from her touch.

"Just... leave me alone. Okay?"

Pyrrha bowed her head; the personification of cheerlessness.

"If that's what you think is best..."

She walked away, her footsteps getting softer and softer until she left the roof the roof. Jaune paced a little until he heard a mocking laugh and Cardin appeared on the roof from his window.

"Oh, Jaune..."

"Cardin!"

"I couldn't help but overhear you two from my dorm room. So, you snuck into Beacon, huh? I gotta say, Jaune, I never expected _you_ to be such a rebel!"

"Please, Cardin, _please_, don't tell anyone!"

Jaune had took on a begging tone.

"Jaune, come on! I'd never rat on a friend like that!"

Jaune approached cautiously, unsure if the offering of friendship was simply a ruse to get him within punching distance. He should've trusted his instincts.

"A... a friend?"

"Of course!"

Cardin _trapped Jaune in a headlock under his arm despite his struggling._

"We're _friends_ now, Jauney boy! And the way I see it, as long as you're there for me when I need you, we'll be friends for a _long_ time."

Cardin finally released Jaune, who gasped and he fell to the ground

"That being said, I really don't have time to do those extra readings Dr. Oobleck gave us today. Think you could take care of that for me, buddy?"

He leant down to rub Jaune's hair, then got up with a grin. "That's what I thought. Don't worry, Jaune; your secret's safe with me."

Cardin drops back down to his room as Jaune rubs his neck in pain and worry.

"Oh, Arc...you damned fool."

Vlad shook his head in disappointment.

"And Pyrrha? Why give up on him? You seem like an intelligent girl, so I won't intervene-"

"Peek-a-boo, Motherf**ker!"

The girly screams of Cardin Winchester alerted him to the implications of his teammate killing a student of the academy.

"Ok, but just this once."

Vlad swooped down, catching a falling Cardin, whose face went through a temporary strain of Bipolar disorder. Relief, gratitude, horror, disgust, rage...in that order.

"You! Get off me you Faunus _freak_!"

Vlad sighed, and dropped him. Cardin hurtled down at blinding speeds, he accepted his fate, then hit the surface face first. The impact of his body on water stung like salt in a fresh wound. His screams were so loud Vlad almost thought he'd regained his vision.

"What the hell?! I could've **died**!"

Vlad smirked down at him.

"Maybe next time you should _choose_ your words more **wisely**!"

Before Cardin could retort, Vlad flew away to his dorm room, happy with himself, but still troubled by the day's events. When he entered the dorm through the window, he noticed three things that gave him cause for concern.

1. Tobias was throwing knives at the nearest wall, undeterred by the screams of the students residing beyond the other side of that wall.

2. Jasper was working on what appeared to be a larger version of Kishock, which was rooted to the ground; also aimed at the wall.

3. Wilhelm looked as if he were preparing to become a one-man-riot. molotovs, pipe bombs, tear gas canisters all lay on the table before him. He was even _drinking_ the contents of one of the molotov cocktails!

"What the actual fuc-"

"Shut up, man! Go grab me that TV remote."

Vlad begrudgingly obliged, handing him the universal device. His drunken companion then pulled a blob of Play Don't from his pocket, stuck a pipe bomb, a stopwatch, and some wires from the remote onto it, then connected the three components.

"Jas! You're up."

The grey jacketed teen rushed towards the doorway, snatching the IED on the way out. The boy then dissolved into the air, becoming invisible to everyone but Vlad, who could only sense the boy's erratic, almost angry breathing pattern.

"Wilhelm: explain."

"Ok. Have you ever met the neighbours? They're the scum of Remnant. Faunophobic, homophobic, and _very_ judgemental. They were talking s**t directly to our collective faces! They b***hed about Tobias' outfit, they b***hed about my bandages, and, they b***hed about Jasper's jacket."

As soon as the word "jacket" left his mouth, Vlad understood. The assassin was always overly-attached to that damnable jacket. He'd heard from Tobias that he had almost shot Jaune on their first day because he'd thrown up on it. He also witnessed Jasper hospitalise Russell Thrush for vandalising the symbol on his jacket. To say this was to be expected would have been an understatement of gargantuan proportions.

On that moment, the door slammed shut, and Jasper reappeared.

"Done."

Tobias smirked, and walked over to the wall.

"Alright, b***hes! We'd like you to **politely **take back all of those _hurtful_ words you said about me and my teammates."

A feminine voice replied, sounding equally terrified and enraged.

"Oh yeah?! And why would I apologise for hurting a Dog's feelings?! You-you ex-White Fang b*****d!"

Vlad frowned.

"Wilhelm, these aren't _as_ b***hy as you made them out to be. Oh no. They're _much_ worse: they're, ughhhh..._normal people."_

Vlad shuddered, and rightfully so. He didn't think _normal people_ had the brains, brawn, or sheer talent to get into Beacon. That's why _they're_ _normal, _and _Hunters_ are _special_._  
_

"Yep, and that's why we've got a problem with 'em. We've all been thinking, and the three of us have chosen to-"

Wilhelm stumbled and fell over a nearby coffee table Jasper had pilfered from Ozpin's office when he was out on a coffee run.

"-We have chosen to accept our diversities and join together as The Freak Show!"

Vlad raised an eyebrow.

'The Freak Show? For some reason I find this notion oddly compelling...meh, I'll go with it.'

"Sure. Why not?"

"**Because**, there is an IED hidden within the confinements of your dorm set to explode in two days time. Now, if you don't mind living in a crater for the foreseeable future, then by all means: be a b***h. However-if you value your Bustin Jieber vibrator collection-I strongly suggest you comply with our-very simple-demands."

There was a short period of silence, then the sound of four pairs of feet scampering around as they tore their dorm to pieces.

"Yeah, you're not gonna find it!"

"And why is that, you feral f**k?!"

"'That', is because you're going to stop looking-and before you interrupt me: I'm gonna tell ya why. You see, if you don't stop searching; I'm gonna blow ya to hell with my friend's explosive harpoon gun."

The immediate barrage of pleas and apologies shocked him into a near vegetative state; he hadn't expected them to even apologise once, let alone drown him in apologies.

"Damn, glad to know I'm appreciated. Tell ya what, because I'm nice, you can search for the IED."

They all froze.

"What?! You're not getting rid of it?!"

He laughed in her face through the hole in the wall.

"Of course not! Where's the fun in that?!"

The four girls behind the wall squealed in terror, and the erratic footsteps shook the very foundations of Beacon Academy.

Those four demented boys slept well that night, knowing that there would be four less generic b***hes in the world.

* * *

No apologies: you f****rs conform to _**MY**_ schedule, not yours!


	13. Chapter 13

Heyo!-I really need a new greeting to-you know-mix things up a little. ThatInternetGuy here-you know what? F**k that! I'm done telling you who's here, as by now you know the pen name of the Author of this virtual piece of s**t on the underwear of normality. And to all you haters out there who've decided not to flame my story because this is my first time, stop giving me special treatment! I openly challenge all flamers to slate my story to the best of their ability, so I can have a hate-hate conversation with someone other than my brother. Because all good stories have flamers, right? Unless...(gasp) unless you **are** trolling me by **not** trolling me so my story isn't a good one. You diabolical b*****ds! I've changed my cover, if anyone wants to make me a new one; by all means. Just don't use anything other than black, grey, white, or silver. I'll explain why in a PM if you're interested...I'll give cookies to those who help.

* * *

Chapter 13: Forever Fall...down the steep, never ending staircase that is society, breaking a bone on every step, staining it with your blood like wine on a wedding dress...

* * *

"You're **what**?!"

Tobias slammed both of his arms down on Ozpin's desk, eliciting a creak from the aforementioned desk, and an amused chuckle from the headmaster. This was the seventeenth time Tobias had found himself in the office of one of the world's most influential men. Wilhelm had been sent there fifteen times, Jasper; four, but most surprising was Vlad's number: fifty-six. Granted, fifty-three of those were casual visits, the other three were for sabotaging Port's lessons by killing his captured animals out of spite.

"I'm sorry, didn't you hear? I said you are spending twenty hours in community service each for crippling the members of Team BRBY."

(Barbie-disclaimer: I don't own Barbie, that belongs to some toy company I don't care about.)

"Community service?!-"

Wilhelm stubbed his toe on the desk, a direct consequence of him forgetting to put his left boot on.

"Ow, ow, ow!... Community service?! No! Nonononono! Anything but community service! Imprison me! Fine me! Feed me to Dogs-no offence!"

He pointed at Tobias, who growled indignantly.

"Shoot me! Stab me! Burn me alive! Crucify me!..."

Wilhelm continued to list punishments, but everyone quickly drowned him out with legitimate complaints.

"They made fun of my jacket!"

"Your jacket smells of blood and sorrow."

Ozpin parried Jasper's defensive plea with a demeaning comment.

"I've got training droids to destroy!-Wait, ignore that last part!"

Ozpin smirked; he had found the chink in Tobias' verbal armour he had needed.

"So that was you? For being honest, I'll remove four hours from your community service time. You now only have a total of forty-four hours community service time remaining."

The headmaster had Tobias in a metaphorical sleeper hold: the more he struggled to escape the trap, the worse the situation got for him.

"Whaddya mean 'forty-four hours'?!"

Oz smirked.

"No, I think you mean eighty-eight."

Toby's eye twitched.

"No, I think you mean-"

"One hundred and seventy-six hours? My thoughts exactly!"

Toby grumbled and moved to leave the room, but not before hearing something that disgusted him.

"Sir, these idiots are the ones you want, not me. I am here simply for walking in on them waging war on those judgemental b***hes-"

"Oh no! You're just as guilty as we are! You gave Wilhelm the wires to make the IED, so really, you're the reason they're in hospital."

Tobias had decided that if he was going down, he was taking his team with him.

"Oh, you backstabbing little-!"

"Hell, castrate me-! Wait! Ignore that last one!"

Wilhelm finally stopped listing ways to torture himself when he accidentally blurted out something he didn't want to.

"That can be arranged, Mr. Douglas-"

"Nonononononono! I'll do the community service...I'll finish the job on those racist f*****s!"

"Ok. Everybody just stop now. We're only gonna make this worse for ourselves if we carry on with our futile protests."

Jasper calmed them all, leading to the complete ceasefire of all verbal protests.

"Okay Ozpin; whaddya need?"

"You all seem to have extensive knowledge in rural and urban survival, so I feel the need to waste resources on teaching you things you already know. As such, you will be joining Professor Goodwitch on the security detail of the Forever Fall expedition. I trust you are all fine with this?"

The four smirked sadistically: this would give them free reign on torturing the other students of their year.

"No sir-we're good-catch ya later-don't wanna be late for the trip now, do we fellas?!"

Before any of them could respond, Tobias dragged them all away to the airship.

"Don't run in the corridors-! Oh, why do I even bother?"

Goodwitch muttered in an aggravated tone. Ozpin reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know, Glynda. I really, _really_ don't."

Glynda turned to face him.

"I don't mean to question you, sir, but why did you ever let those boys into this Academy?"

Ozpin sighed, Glynda wasn't going to like this...

"I need real soldiers for this war that's coming, Glynda. I've had reports of The Cultists tripling their sacrificial ritual body counts. Their numbers have also grown exponentially, however this isn't even the most troubling part... There have been reported sightings of Silas Reaves in and around both Vale and Forever Fall-"

Goodwitch's stare burned through his skull.

"_Silas Reaves_? **The** _Silas Reaves?! _So you have recently been given reports of an undead mass-murderer who crippled you and killed Summer, and you have decided it would be best to send first year students into the very same forest we first met him in?! It's times like these where I think your love for Summer puts everyone else at risk."

Glynda left it there, she had said all she needed to. The blonde left the rooms, headed for the airship.

* * *

"Oh, hey guys! What's up?"

Ruby exclaimed in surprise, though that quickly turned to confusion when Team CRW's members grinned knowingly at Wilhelm, simply feeling an epic failure of monumental proportions coming on.

"The roof of the airship my young friend-"

Wilhelm stubbed his toe on the bottom of the ramp leading onto the airship, causing him to hop backwards holding his foot in perpetual agony. Unfortunately, the flight of steps Wilhelm had climbed to get to his allies came back to bite him, almost literally, as a statue of a Beowolf on the railing hit him in the face. Down he went, contorting his body into unimaginably painful positions.

Once he hit the bottom of the ramp, he found himself staring directly at Glynda Goodwitch; his third most hated person ever. His second being Ozpin, and the first being himself.

"Mr. Douglas: please pick yourself up, you have a job to do."

She went to grab his hand, but he simply ignored it, and stumbled to his feet. The trek back up the stairs was like a walk of shame for Wilhelm, as he could hear the thundering laughter of his teammates throughout the climb.

"Bravo, Captain Cripple!"

Quipped Tobias, wetting himself laughing.

"An excellent performance, you drunken b*****d!"

Jasper actually applauded him.

"...You're a f*****g idiot, Wilhelm."

Vlad deadpanned Wilhelm, abruptly ending all false praise before making his way onto the airship. Everyone else followed suit, with Wilhelm entering last. However, he once again stubbed his toe. This time though, a feminine hand grasped his tattered shirt.

"Oh no you don't."

Wilhelm knew that voice.

"Hey there, Velvet. Thanks. I'm just not on my A-game today."

She smiled shyly.

"Well I don't think you have to worry about that today."

There was a short period of incredibly awkward laughter following that comment. Neither participant could explain why they laughed, they simply did.

"Uhh...Velvet? I'd understand if you like it, but my shirt isn't for sale. Please let go."

Velvet was shocked; she hadn't let go of his shirt! She still hadn't let go of his shirt! Why couldn't she let go of the shirt?!

"S-seriously V. I have like four other shirts just as f****d up as this. I can getcha one if ya like? Just let go-"

Cardin Winchester barged past them, making Velvet cling onto Wilhelm like a scared Kitten (wrong animal, I know. But how many times have you seen a f*****g Rabbit cling onto something? Tell me in the reviews if you have.) However, when she did this, she tore open the buttons on his shirt, revealing the mutilated chest of Wilhelm Douglas.

"Oh my god, I'm so so sorry Wilhelm, I-"

***gasp!***

There were multiple scars across his chest that were obviously caused by bayonet wounds. Others were assault rifle bullet holes. He even had a crater near his pelvis-a direct consequence of allowing a CQC soldier to unload a 12-gauge shotgun shell into his body.

"What happened?"

Wilhelm raised one of his eyebrows, the right one, with the machete scar through the middle of it.

"Are you cereal? Do your ears work? Remember that history lesson we had a few weeks ago when I explained what I used to do for fun?"

Her eyes were dinner plates.

"B-but I thought you said you were a sniper?"

Wilhelm chuckled to himself a little.

"Yeah, I'm what you'd call an 'unconventional combatant.'"

Air quotes. He'd never had the chance to use them during conversation before. Boy did he feel great.

"So you got hurt because you were being stupid?"

Wilhelm moved to put his hand his heart, but recoiled in pain when he accidentally rammed his middle finger into a bullet hole.

"Well, when you put it like that...yeah. But can you blame me? My life has basically _revolved_ around killing. From the age of ten, I've been killing people. Honestly? I'm getting _sick_ of killing. So I fight _dangerously_. If I'm gonna spend the rest of my short life-and it _will_ be a short one-killing, then I'm gonna have some fun doing it."

Velvet seemed troubled by his answer.

"Well, you had friends in the army...right? They _must've_ helped you at some point."

"Yeah. They did. When they were alive."

The look of pity on the Rabbit's face only grew, which vexed Wilhelm.

"Hey! Wipe that stupid-a*s look off your face before I burn it off with some Everclear and a spark plug! Did I ask for your pity?!"

The girl looked terrified, but after Wilhelm had taken a swig, he forgot why.

"No, seriously: did I? I can't remember."

Velvet released a sigh of relief, before groaning at her only friend.

"You are a piece of work, Will, you know that?"

* * *

"Yes children: the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. However, we are not here to sightsee. Team CRDW and myself are here to protect you from the rare creatures of Grimm residing within this tranquil place. You are, however, here to collect a jar of red sap each for the assignment given to you by Professor Peach. You have one hour, and I expect to see you at the ship by then _with_ your sap. Dismissed."

As soon as the groups split up to get to work, CRDW took their positions.

PR was working hard collecting their sap. Nora, on the other hand, was drinking every jar Ren filled. They all thought it was because it was Nora. Little did they know that Jasper had shot her with a dart filled with salt water, forcing her to desperately try to replace the water she had lost, much to the ire of Ren.

"Nora!"

"***Chug* **Ughhh... I'm sorry, Ren. I'm just so-***Chug***"

* * *

Elsewhere, team RWBY was also collecting their sap...until a pack of Atlas Blitzkrieg Wolverines tore through the forest, raiding their sap jars, and scaring the four girls away. Wilhelm couldn't compose himself in time to dodge the Wolverine barrelling towards him, aimed straight at his bottle of Everclear.

He had decided it would be a good idea to put some red sap into the Everclear to see if it tasted better. It did. It did, and the Wolverine knew it.

"Awww **hell** no! You wanna go-! Ha, that rhymed."

(Cue awesome and intense fight scene that I'm not adding in until I get flamed. Because I love abuse. Ha.)

[P.S: If you're a Flamer, then don't read this next bit or I'll put you out. Ok guys, now they're gone, I'm not really holding back content, I'm just lazy.]

* * *

Tobias was stalking prey. What was the prey, you ask? Team SEPT. Emerald Frey, Tyler Titanium, Father Pearl, and Silver Deimos. They had finished ten minutes ago, and were idly chatting with each other. This was when Tobias chose to strike.

"Yo, f**knuggets! Wanna piece of me?!"

They all turned their heads. Pearl and Emerald seemed confused, Tyler looked a little agitated, but Silver was fuming.

"What did you just say, you little s**t?!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot you only speak retard!"

Silver charged forwards, activating his Semblance. A flicker of fear snuck its way onto Tobias' face, but he simply blocked it out. He'd seen and done much worse than this punk could possibly do.

"Is that it? I'd've thought you would've been able to come up with something a little more frightening than that! But I guess not."

Truthfully, the images conjured within his head had him more than a little bit terrified. But Silver didn't need to know that...

Tobias simply had to withstand the effects of his Semblance until Vlad could finish annihilating SEPT's sap supply.

"What the hell's your problem man? We never did anything to you!"

Emerald questioned.

"Shut it, Snake Eyes!"

"Guys, there's no point in arguing with him-I feel a disturbance in the plot!"

Tyler spun around, bringing his flamethrower to bear on the sap supply.

"Dude, what the fuc-"

Said sap supply erupted into flames.

"...Never mind. You seem to have done my job for me. See ya!"

Tobias let all of his built up terror take his body, causing him to run four times his normal speed.

"Get smoked, b***hes! Come on Vlad!"

A grey blur flew through the treeline.

"Oh don't worry about me then! Save yourself! I'll be fi-"

His body twitched spasmodically as a bolt of electrical energy entered his body. Three guesses who from.

Silver? No...his Semblance is fear and he doesn't carry Dust.

Tyler? Nah. He's crazy. He only has a flamethrower, it doesn't even have an alternate mode!

Pearl? Maybe...no. He's a pacifist. A Human meat-shield. A walking bullet sponge. An indestructible punching bag...

That only leaves...

"Apologise to my team. Now."

Tobias laughed and spat at her.

"Well aren't you a hyper little bootstrap? You've got the energy, and the willpower, but how's your stamina?"

Emerald glared at him in disgust, though that only increased when she caught the dirty joke.

"You disgust me. We are the same-"

"Now that's where I cut in. 1. I have ears. 2. I have normal eyes. 3. I'm not a stuck up Snake b***h-"

Emerald snapped into Boa mode, choking the life from a Wolf stupid enough to taunt it.

"I understand this may be your first time, but you're tugging on the wrong head there, babe."

Wilhelm limped from the bushes, a large gash on his right leg.

Emerald scowled at him, dropping Tobias, who scuttled away.

"What is wrong with your team?!"

"Do you want your list in chronological, or alphabetical order, my dear?"

Jasper materialised behind her, laughing when she leapt away.

"Awww...did he scare ya?"

Vlad hung beside her from a tree branch.

"Yes!"

"Well. We don't care."

"Hold it! The Author has something to say!"

Everyone stopped and stared in various states of disbelief.

"Alright, whaddya want, loaned owner?"

What do you mean: "loaned owner?"

"You borrowed my team's characters and a whole religion from FlamingGinger28."

Oh...

"Aren't ya gonna stick to your own script?"

Script?! Ha, don't make me laugh. I come up with my chapter ideas on the spot.

"Seriously? And you're expecting to churn out 10 story arcs making it up as you go along?!"

Yep. And this is only arc 2.

"We're in arc 2?!"

Yep. Arc 1 was all of chapter 1.

"What's arc 3?"

I can't tell you that. It'll spoil the [REDACTED] surprise!

"Whaddya mean: [REDACTED] surprise?! You make less sense than Ginger's stories-?!"

You haven't featured in any of Ginger's stories yet. This is your pilot episode!

"Whhaaaaaaa?! I didn't even get to iron out my straightjacket! You're no fun."

Ok. I think our 4th wall conversation has gone on long enough. Tell them that Jaune Arc's in trouble.

"What do you mean?! Who's Jaune Arc?!"

Vlad groaned.

"Titanium. What the hell are you rambling about?"

He began pointing in the direction of Jaune Arc, unbeknownst to him.

"Well now it is beknownst to me, isn't it bro?"

Tyler. Stay focused. If you don't, that boy will die.

"Fiiiine! God, I hate you so much..."

I am not God. I am ThatInternetGuy.

"I know!"

He turns towards his merry men/women.

"Oh, B T dubs: Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester are being mauled by an Ursa Major."

Emerald glared at him.

"How is that a sidenote?! You could've told us that off the start!"

"I could have. _Could_ being the keyword. Now look at you: _instead_ of fighting with me you _could_ be saving this Arc kid."

Emerald went to carry on, but stopped herself.

"We are **not** done here."

She zoomed off with Pearl and Silver on her heels. Tyler followed at the back of the pack.

'He's the Omega...'

"Well... I guess we're following on."

CRDW darted off in the direction of Mr. Arc and Winchester.

* * *

"Well, I get we're supposed to be happy for Jaune and all, but _I_ just ran a literal mile with a busted leg to watch _Caboose_ here decapitate a Demon Bear on _steroids!"_

Jaune had just finished off the Ursa, showing that he did actually know where the handle of his sword was. Unfortunately, he was still holding his shield upside-down.

"Hey Wilhelm?"

The cripple looked over to his teammate.

"Yeah?"

"If you make a joke about Caboose again, I will eat you."

No harsh tone. No emphasis on eat. Not even a flash of the fangs. However, his monotonous tone coupled with his nonchalant stance made it seem like this was a common occurrence in his life. One that had occurred so often it no longer made him feel any emotions. Which was partially right; he could feel disgust.

"Ok. But you'll die of alcohol poisoning. My blood is 50% Everclear, so good luck with that."

The part that got on Vlad's nerves the most was that it was true...probably.

"So...are we gonna herd 'em back to Goodwitch?"

Wilhelm asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Mmmm...nah."

Tobias walked off. Jasper followed. As did Wilhelm. Vlad stared in disbelief.

'Damn...I get Wilhelm's excuse; he lost pretty much everyone in his family. But then again Jasper was betrayed by the only father figure he'd ever really had...and Tobias is a d**k...ok, they're off the hook.'

"Hey, we're leaving!"

Vlad have them one warning then caught up with his teammates, who looked about ready to feed him his ears.

* * *

Back at Beacon, Vlad was performing his evening lap of the school grounds, when he overheard a conversation between Pyrrha and Jaune, allowing him to see them too.

"No Cardin tonight?"

She walked towards him slowly, almost nervously.

"I thought you two were best buds?"

Jaune turned to face her.

"Pyrrha... I'm sorry. I was a jerk! You were only trying to be nice, and... I had all this stupid macho stuff in my head-"

"Jaune! It's okay! Your team really misses their leader, you know. You should come down! Ren made pancakes! No syrup, though - you can thank Nora for that!"

Jaune smiled but held out his hand and called out.

"Wait!"

Pyrrha turned around, and Jaune looked sheepishly at her.

"I know I don't deserve it after all that happened, but... would you still be willing to help me... to help me become a better fighter?"

Pyrrha turned around so a worried Jaune couldn't see her satisfied smile. She marched up to Jaune and suddenly pushed her leader to the ground.

"Hey!"

Pyrrhastood over him with her arms on her hips.

"Your stance is all wrong. You need to be wider and lower to the ground. Let's try that again."

Vlad smiled at the sound of Pyrrha teaching Jaune to take a light shove.

'Oh yes, because I'm gonna shove him to death in a fight with him, Pyrrha.'

But either way, he was glad his incompetent friend was back on track.

* * *

'_Dyanea? How's your design coming along?'_

Grimm inquired into his daughter's work.

"It's going alright, but I'm not strong enough to lift it yet, it's part of the reason why I haven't actually finished yet."

'_Ok. Do you need help?'_

"That would be nice-"

'_Reaves! Hold this!'_

The giant was already holding it, although he hardly broke a sweat.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I mean you don't even have the Timer. What's the point in having a weapon that doesn't work?"

"I just want it to be ready. It's called preparation."

"Hey, Grimm? How did the meeting with your merry band of psychopaths go?"

Torchwick asked from the corner of the room; completely cutting off the dealer trying to sell him Burn Dust for three times the price.

'They are well. Stheno and Euryale have been mustering their forces after their sister was beheaded by Qrow Rose. Consequently, they have been in an arms race against the White Fang; both sides need to be equipped. I have no doubt that my forces shall prevail, though. Because unlike the White Fang, my forces have my creatures willingly by my side."

* * *

Long time no see my six followers! Next chapter, we will finally break free from my boring CRDW antic chapters, and we will be that much closer to Arc 3, which I have been hyped about for...two years. Ever since I first began writing.

P.S: I began writing fanfics way before I got my account running. They were just poorly written with every OC being either an Einstein Stu, a Jerk Stu, or a Sympathetic Stu.

P.P.S: If you fail to recognise the internet references, please use Wikipedia to search 'Mary Sue', then come back.

P.P.P.S: Credit goes to FlamingGinger28 for Team SEPT. He let me use them before he did. To a guy like me, this is like going to a friends house to check out a new game, only for them to let you play first!

P.P.P.P.S: Yes, I know it says Stu.


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